drunk driving
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Colorado Supreme Court rules prosecutors entitled to drunk driving suspect’s medical records
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Because a woman accused of driving drunk planned to argue that any intoxication she experienced was involuntary, the Colorado Supreme Court agreed on Monday that Arapahoe County prosecutors are entitled to see her post-accident medical records. Noelle Dawn Kelley appealed directly to the state’s highest court after a trial judge ruled Kelley had “injected her…
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Colorado Supreme Court, 6-1, clarifies meaning of ‘prior’ DUI offense
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The Colorado Supreme Court clarified on Monday that if someone is charged with multiple drunk driving offenses, what matters is which incident results in a conviction first, not necessarily which offense happens first. Under Colorado law, each subsequent impaired driving conviction receives a harsher sentence. Consequently, prior convictions are important for determining the severity of…
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Colorado Supreme Court to decide whether life without parole for non-triggerman is constitutional
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The Colorado Supreme Court announced on Monday that it will consider whether it is unconstitutional for a defendant to serve a sentence of life without parole for murder when he was not the one who caused the victim’s death. The case out of El Paso County implicates Colorado’s “felony murder” law, which, until recently, provided…
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‘The law is the law’: Conifer students experience real appellate cases, quiz judges
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For a select group of attorneys who argued their cases before Colorado’s Court of Appeals on Tuesday, the experience was different in two key ways: First, they traded the ornate courtrooms of downtown Denver for the picturesque foothills 30 miles to the west. Second, the most pointed questioning did not necessarily come from the court.…
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Delta County judge let biased juror serve, appeals court finds in reversing convictions
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A Delta County judge allowed a biased juror to serve in a woman’s drunk driving trial, the state’s Court of Appeals concluded last week in reversing the defendant’s convictions. A three-judge panel for the Court of Appeals noted the juror, identified as S.B., volunteered during jury selection that she would assume Katherine Susan Griswold was…
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Colorado Supreme Court critical of prosecutors’ misleading presentation of evidence
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Members of the Colorado Supreme Court on Tuesday pushed back against the notion that prosecutors can paint a misleading picture of a criminal defendant’s guilt by shielding the jury from evidence the defendant did not commit an offense after all. In a pair of cases argued before the justices, the government asserted the state’s Court…
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Colorado Supreme Court accepts cases on forced blood draws, mineral rights
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The Colorado Supreme Court agreed to review two cases on appeal in the past two weeks, with one questioning the constitutionality of forced blood testing on suspected drunk drivers and the other involving a dispute over oil and gas rights underneath a public street in Greeley. At least three of the court’s seven members must…
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State Supreme Court takes up 2 drunk driving appeals, case about campus sexual misconduct
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The Colorado Supreme Court on Monday agreed to review three appeals that implicate the state’s drunk driving laws and the legal obligation of universities to conduct fair investigations into alleged sexual misconduct. At least three of the court’s seven members must consent to review a case. One appeal raises yet another angle in the long-running fallout…
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State Supreme Court takes on homeowner insurance issue, shows interest in 2 criminal cases
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The Colorado Supreme Court on Monday agreed to decide whether two Boulder County homeowners may pursue their insurance claim for hail damage, even though they reported it to their insurer 10 days beyond their policy’s deadline. The legal question and facts are virtually identical to another case the court accepted in December out of Denver, Gregory…
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Divided state Supreme Court says juries may hear defendants’ drunk driving histories
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A majority of the Colorado Supreme Court ruled on Monday that juries must learn about a defendant’s prior drunk driving offenses at the same time they hear the current allegations of drunk driving, over the strenuous objection of three justices who said the move all but ensures a conviction will occur. By 4-3, the Supreme…
