drug
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Appeals court orders new trial, further review after Adams County judge’s errors
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An Adams County judge gave jurors an instruction that misrepresented Colorado’s drug possession law, prompting the state’s Court of Appeals last week to reverse the felony conviction of Ashley Morgan. Moreover, a three-judge panel of the appellate court decided District Court Judge Priscilla J. Loew performed an incomplete analysis of whether an Adams County sheriff’s…
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Appeals court overturns Jeffco drug conviction for detective’s improper testimony
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Colorado’s second-highest court determined last month that a detective’s expert testimony claiming the defendant had a “classic case” of possessing drugs with an intent to distribute amounted to a fundamental error that required reversing the conviction. State and federal courts have delineated when an expert’s testimony is improper at trial, including when an expert opines…
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District attorneys offer contrasting takes on new fentanyl law’s felony charge
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District attorneys are offering divergent interpretations of the compromise that finally broke the gridlock and facilitated passage of the legislative response to Colorado’s fentanyl crisis, with some insisting the new language burdens prosecutors while others maintaining it does the contrary. At issue is an amendment to House Bill 1326 that says a person caught with 1…
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Law enforcement coalition calls fentanyl bill’s felony provision ‘practically meaningless’
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A coalition of law enforcement groups on Tuesday described state fentanyl legislation’s current felony provision for simple possession as “practically meaningless,” while a group representing district attorneys said that language renders the intended teeth in the legislation “almost useless.” The coalition, composed of the County Sheriffs of Colorado, the Colorado Association of Chiefs of…
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Colorado House committee advances bill that lowers felony threshold for fentanyl possession
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A panel of Colorado legislators advanced a bill Wednesday that increases criminal penalties for possessing small amounts of fentanyl, a middle-of-the-road approach between factions who want harsher penalties and those who decry going back to the tough-on-crime strategy of the past. The House Judiciary Committee advanced House Bill 1326, the legislature’s sweeping attempt to address…
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Law enforcement groups, harm reduction advocates clash over fentanyl possession
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A coalition of law enforcement organizations on Thursday criticized a sweeping approach to the fentanyl crisis in Colorado, saying it doesn’t do enough to crack down on those who possess the deadly drug. But harm reduction and addiction experts have taken the opposite position, warning that proposed changes to the state’s drug code would have…
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Title Board advances ballot initiatives on criminalizing abortion, expanding ‘natural medicine’
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The Title Board awarded ballot titles on Wednesday to three proposed statewide initiatives, one of which would criminalize abortions while the other two would expand access to psychoactive medicine. Initiative #56 would outlaw the “murder of a child,” which would include intentionally causing the death of “a living human being at any time prior to,…
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Justice agencies pitch requests to lawmakers, including separate funding for judicial discipline body
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State lawmakers heard a variety of requests from justice agencies on Tuesday, including a need for paralegals at the public defender’s office, a constitutional amendment to facilitate a new judicial district, and a funding stream for the state’s judicial discipline body that does not require Supreme Court approval. Officials told legislators about pressing challenges, notably…
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Appeals court slams failure to document custody of drug evidence in Colorado Springs case
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A man will receive a new trial after the state’s second-highest court ruled that prosecutors failed to show Colorado Springs police continuously kept track of a bag of white powder, with one officer acknowledging he retrieved it from the ground and never saw it again until trial. Three judges on a panel of the Court…
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Colorado to surpass 2020 overdose death toll
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Colorado is on track to surpass its record-breaking overdose death toll from last year, state data show, with fentanyl continuing to play a larger and deadlier role in the state’s spiraling overdose crisis and even as lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies and opioid manufacturers begin to wind down. Total data for 2021 is not yet available, state…
