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No constitutional right to plead guilty, appeals court says in upholding El Paso County convictions
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An El Paso County judge was not constitutionally obligated to accept a defendant’s guilty plea, Colorado’s second-highest court concluded last week. Appealing his convictions, Timothy Ray Scott Jr. argued his trial judge violated his constitutional right to “autonomy” by not letting him plead guilty. The U.S. Supreme Court has previously interpreted the Sixth Amendment’s guarantee of…
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State Supreme Court adopts new accountability standard for prosecutors
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The Colorado Supreme Court has clarified the circumstances under which prosecutors may face professional sanctions for failing to disclose information that they know, or should know, would cast doubt on the guilt of the criminally accused. The rule change also quietly reversed the high court’s two-decade-old precedent requiring disclosure to defendants only when evidence is…
