gilpin county
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Divided appeals court finds Gilpin County juror not biased against defendant
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In a divided ruling on Thursday, Colorado’s second-highest court determined a Gilpin County judge acted appropriately by keeping a woman on a criminal jury after her admission that she “would need to hear that reason why” the defendant did not take the witness stand. A three-judge panel for the Court of Appeals acknowledged a quirk…
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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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‘Tap your network’: Judicial branch, gov’s office offer advice for aspiring judges
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The process of being appointed a judge in Colorado may not be political in a partisan sense, but it does push applicants to engage their networks into advocating on their behalf to those who have the power to shape the state’s judiciary. “You need the support of people around you to get through the process.…
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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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In rare move, appeals court reverses itself to concede unlawful search
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After taking an extraordinary third look at a criminal appeal out of Gilpin County, Colorado’s second-highest court this week made the rare move of withdrawing its prior decisions and reversing the defendant’s drug conviction. Nearly 11 months after it first concluded a sheriff’s deputy lawfully seized a sunglasses case from Robert Scott Schweizer’s van that contained methamphetamine, a…
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Appeals court offers competing interpretations of juror’s admission he ‘didn’t want diversity’
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A fractured Court of Appeals has upheld the kidnapping and sexual assault convictions of a man in Gilpin County, with sharp disagreement among the judges about the role racial bias played in his jury selection. Reginald Keith Clark, who is Black, is serving a 30-year sentence for bringing a white woman against her will from…
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With new state House and Senate maps, let the games begin
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The wait is over. And the scramble has begun. Now that the Colorado Supreme Court has approved new state House and Senate maps, candidates are crafting designs to run for more competitive seats that also appear to shrink the influence of rural communities at the state Capitol. The new maps will reshape Colorado’s political landscape, and,…
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4,400 Gilpin County voters sent wrong voting instructions
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Thousands of Gilpin County voters have received the wrong instructions about how to vote in next month’s election with ballots that were mailed out this week. Those voters were told to enclose a copy of an identification card with their mail-in ballots for their vote to be valid. But Dwight Shellman with the Colorado Secretary…
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YESTERYEAR: Supreme Court affirms Legislature’s gambling acts, Wadham’s wins GOP by acclamation
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Twenty Years Ago This Week in The Colorado Statesman … The Colorado Supreme Court had been mulling over the Legislature’s gambling restrictions on elected officials, passed six years earlier, and they had reached their conclusion. The Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision, declared constitutional a law prohibiting elected, municipal officials of Central City, Black Hawk and Cripple Creek as…