animal cruelty
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Mesa County animal cruelty convictions overturned for officer’s unconstitutional search
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Colorado’s second-highest court determined on Thursday that a Mesa County animal control officer gathered evidence of a cruelty offense from a woman’s property in violation of the Fourth Amendment, necessitating a new trial. The constitutional prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures generally requires police to obtain a warrant or else rely on an established exception…
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Colorado Supreme Court rejects expanded role for juries in analyzing prior convictions
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The Colorado Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected the argument that juries should be the ones who increase the severity of a defendant’s convictions by evaluating prior convictions – meaning judges alone retain the authority to transform a misdemeanor into a felony in some instances. The question of whether juries should decide beyond a reasonable doubt whether…
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Jared Polis celebrates SCOTUS decision on California’s animal confinement law
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Gov. Jared Polis praised last week’s decision of the U.S. Supreme Court that upheld the ability of states to enact laws governing the treatment of livestock. In National Pork Producers Council v. Ross, the pork industry challenged a California law, enacted by ballot initiative, to require producers of meat and egg products to comply with certain…
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Colorado Supreme Court ponders role of juries in evaluating prior convictions
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More than two years ago, when the Colorado Supreme Court found that juries, not judges, must decide if people accused of felony drunk driving are repeat offenders, it prompted defendants found guilty of other offenses to wonder whether their own prior convictions were something prosecutors must prove to juries beyond a reasonable doubt. In two…
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State Supreme Court agrees to interpret felony animal cruelty, sex offender registration laws
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Colorado’s Supreme Court has agreed to interpret whether two state laws, criminalizing cruelty to animals and the failure to register as a sex offender, permit convictions to be transformed into felonies upon a judge’s findings alone, or if a jury must make that decision. Both cases came through the state’s Court of Appeals, where separate…
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10th Circuit upholds seizure of Park County horses
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The federal appeals court based in Denver upheld the seizure of dozens of malnourished horses in Park County, finding that government officials had probable cause to suspect a violation of Colorado’s animal cruelty law. After a lower court judge dismissed his lawsuit last year, Mark Walker turned to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the…
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This Week at the Capitol: Feb. 19-23
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NOTE: Monday, Feb. 19 is President’s Day and both the House and Senate are closed. Here are the legislative committee hearings of note for the week ahead in the Colorado Capitol. Committee schedules are subject to change. The daily schedule is available on the legislature’s website. Click here and scroll down to committee hearings to listen online. …
