capital punishment
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A tattoo, the N-word, a different crime: Colorado justices hear appeal of former death row inmate
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Almost 20 years after the murders of a young couple in Aurora, the Colorado Supreme Court heard the appeal of the man convicted of orchestrating the killings and who now alleges numerous errors pervaded his trial. Arapahoe County jurors convicted Robert Keith Ray for the 2005 slayings of Javad Marshall-Fields and Vivian Wolfe. He received…
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Colorado Supreme Court upholds murder convictions of Sir Mario Owens
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The Colorado Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the 2008 murder convictions of Sir Mario Owens, rejecting a long list of alleged errors in one of the most high-profile criminal cases in recent state history. Arapahoe County jurors previously found Owens guilty of the 2005 murders of Javad Marshall-Fields and Vivian Wolfe in Aurora. Marshall-Fields was…
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Colorado Supreme Court rules ex-death penalty crimes now eligible for bail
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Three years after Colorado lawmakers repealed the death penalty, the state Supreme Court has clarified that defendants accused of crimes formerly subject to capital punishment are now eligible to be released on bail. The Colorado Constitution generally grants criminal defendants the right to bail pending trial, but carves out an exception for “capital offenses” where…
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Colorado Supreme Court considers whether vestige of death penalty still applies
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On July 1, 2020, Colorado ended the death penalty for the most serious criminal offenses, following a multiyear effort from Democratic lawmakers – with some Republican support – to join 21 other states in abolishing capital punishment. But three years later, Colorado’s death penalty is not completely dead. Last week, the state Supreme Court heard oral arguments…
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Colorado Supreme Court accepts 2 cases on capital punishment, racially-biased juror
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The Colorado Supreme Court agreed to hear two criminal appeals on Monday that question whether defendants are entitled to bail for crimes that formerly qualified for a death sentence, and whether a Black man convicted in an overwhelmingly white county deserves a new trial because one juror admitted he “didn’t want diversity.” At least three…
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SLOAN | How well can Colorado law address the heinous crime in Frederick?
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The murders, by all accounts, were about as gruesome as one would care to imagine. Such horrors cannot really be quantified, of course, but nevertheless anytime such a crime occurs which extinguishes life barely begun, the normal human mind reels a little more. The nature of the murders for which Chris Watts of Frederick has…
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OUT WEST ROUNDUP | Nebraska advances execution plans despite secrecy concerns
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Nebraska State advances execution plans despite secrecy concerns LINCOLN, Nebraska – State officials are forging ahead with plans to execute Nebraska’s longest-serving death-row inmate without disclosing where they obtained lethal injection drugs, despite a judge’s order last week to identify their supplier. The Nebraska attorney general appealed the judge’s ruling as it pushes in a…
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Out West Roundup: Refugees thank adoptive North Dakota city by feeding hungry
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North Dakota Refugees thank adoptive North Dakota city by feeding hungry FARGO, North Dakota – Maria Modi’s journey from South Sudan to a new life in Fargo included a stop at a refugee camp in Cairo. She and her seven siblings know what it is like to be hungry. “My mother and father work 12-hour…
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Out West Roundup: Utah town headed toward keeping booze prohibition
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Utah Utah town headed toward keeping booze prohibition SALT LAKE CITY – One of Utah’s last “dry” communities is on track to maintain its eight-decade prohibition on alcohol sales after voters rejected a measure to allow sales that proponents said would boost tourism and opponents said would threaten the small city’s way of life. Following…
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Guzman: ‘I came to the Legislature to repeal the death penalty’
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Senate Minority Leader Lucia Guzman’s death penalty repeal bill was voted down by Republicans in committee Feb. 15, just as she expected. Speaking before the hearing, Guzman said she hoped mainly that the bill would foster heartfelt conversation on the issue. “It was not to be,” she said. She thinks she might have pulled off…
