elizabeth harris
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Appeals court reverses another Adams County conviction for judge’s faulty analogy
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Colorado’s second-highest court on Thursday once again overturned a defendant’s conviction because an Adams County judge illustrated reasonable doubt to jurors in a way that improperly lessened the prosecution’s burden to prove him guilty. The Court of Appeals has repeatedly reversed the convictions of defendants for more than a year, after the Colorado Supreme Court decided last January that some judges’ well-meaning attempts…
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Appeals court finds no racial discrimination in Black man’s dismissal from El Paso County jury
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Colorado’s second-highest court on Thursday found no intentional racial discrimination at play when El Paso County prosecutors removed the only Black man from a Black defendant’s jury, after misrepresenting what he actually said during jury selection. Michael Ellis is serving a prison sentence of more than 200 years after a jury convicted him in 2019…
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State Supreme Court mulls whether right to counsel differs by defendants’ wealth
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The U.S. Supreme Court has interpreted the Sixth Amendment to guarantee criminal defendants the right to effective assistance from an attorney and the right to hire the counsel of their choosing if they can afford it. Indigent defendants, by contrast, currently have no right to choose which lawyer is appointed for them. But now, Colorado’s…
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Appeals court halts local board’s attempt to open schools outside boundaries
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Colorado’s second-highest court handed a win to the state’s 178 school districts on Thursday, putting a halt to an educational alliance’s practice of opening schools outside its own boundaries without local districts’ consent. State law enables school districts to join together as boards of cooperative educational services, or BOCES, in order to collectively provide certain…
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Appeals court orders judge to reconsider drastic reduction to $33 million wrongful death verdict
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Colorado’s second-highest court has ordered an Arapahoe County judge to reconsider her decision to slash a jury’s $33 million verdict to just $436,070 against a man who was speeding at 99 mph before he ran a red light and killed another motorist. Although District Court Judge Elizabeth Volz applied the monetary cap on jury awards…
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Biased jurors cause appeals court to overturn burglary, theft convictions
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Colorado’s second-highest court has overturned a woman’s convictions for burglary and theft after a Lincoln County judge permitted two biased jurors to serve. Although the state and federal constitutions guarantee the right to an impartial jury, multiple people who sat on Kathyrn Therese Oakes’ jury voiced their opinion that the criminally accused may be “hiding…
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Facts did not support Boulder County judge’s finding of child neglect, appeals court says
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A Boulder County judge did not have sufficient facts to definitively conclude a man had neglected his child, Colorado’s second-highest court ruled last week in reversing the trial court’s decision. In child welfare proceedings, formally known as dependency and neglect cases, a judge’s finding of neglect can eventually lead to the termination of the legal…
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Appeals court overturns ’06, ’07 Jeffco decisions, clears path for father to sue over son’s death
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A decision last month by the state’s Court of Appeals to overturn a series of 16-year-old judicial orders may finally allow a father to pursue liability claims against two child welfare workers over the death of his son. Chandler Grafner died in 2007 at age 7 after suffering from starvation and dehydration at the hands of his…
