judge daniel taubman
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SCOTUS decides Colorado case, state’s newest justice authors first opinion | COURT CRAWL
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Welcome to Court Crawl, Colorado Politics’ roundup of news from the third branch of government. The nation’s highest court decided a First Amendment case out of Colorado, plus the state’s newest justice issued her first opinion since joining the Colorado Supreme Court last month. Heard on appeal • The state Supreme Court decided that news organizations…
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Appeals court divided over effect of retroactive sentence on parole calculation
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Colorado’s second-highest court grappled last week with the framework for calculating a defendant’s earliest possible parole date in light of two intersecting legal principles — a judge’s ability to make an order retroactive, and the requirement that separate, simultaneous sentences be treated as one continuous sentence. By 2-1, a three-judge Court of Appeals panel decided…
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Colorado Supreme Court accepts cases about reliability of gun-to-bullet matching
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The Colorado Supreme Court announced on Monday that it will hear two cases questioning the reliability of expert testimony that purports to identify whether a specific bullet was fired from a specific gun. At least three of the court’s seven members must agree to take up a case on appeal. There is currently one vacancy,…
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Second appeals judge voices concerns about new ‘reasonable doubt’ instruction
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Another member of Colorado’s second-highest court registered his concern on Thursday that a portion of the recently revised “reasonable doubt” definition improperly lowers the prosecution’s burden to prove a defendant guilty. Judge Daniel M. Taubman wrote that the current instruction advising jurors to acquit whenever there is “a real possibility the defendant is not guilty”…
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Appeals judge calls for investigation into law firm’s handling of potential murder weapon
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A member of Colorado’s second-highest court took the extraordinary step on Thursday of calling for an investigation into the “serious ethical issues” raised by a criminal defense firm’s concealment of a potential murder weapon at its office without notifying the prosecution. A three-judge Court of Appeals panel upheld the convictions of Daniel Jesus Lopez, who is…
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Colorado justices weigh new trial for defendant barred from testifying about his lawyer’s advice
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Members of the Colorado Supreme Court considered last week whether a man serving a lengthy prison sentence for securities fraud should receive a new trial, after he was prohibited from testifying about what information his lawyer advised him to disclose to investors. Kelly James Schnorenberg contended he did not commit securities fraud because he consulted…
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Denver parents denied ‘fundamentally fair’ child neglect proceeding, appeals court finds
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Colorado’s second-highest court agreed last month that two Denver parents were denied a “fundamentally fair proceeding” in their child neglect case when the city imposed new conditions and a judge approved them without hearing from the parents first. In July 2022, Denver Human Services initiated a child neglect case against a mother and father. A…
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Appeals court says state campaign finance enforcement framework is constitutional
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Colorado’s second-highest court agreed last week that the state’s current method of adjudicating campaign finance complaints is constitutional and is not the “very definition of tyranny.” For several years, state law has allowed any person to file a complaint alleging a campaign finance violation, which the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office then screens, decides whether to dismiss…
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Appeals court overturns Archuleta County judge’s faulty child neglect ruling
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Colorado’s second-highest court agreed an Archuleta County judge abruptly and wrongly deemed a man’s children neglected after he did not appear for a hearing, even though there was no basis for such a ruling. The county opened a child neglect case for two children based on the mother’s alleged substance abuse. Their father, identified as…
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Appeals court rejects notion that coroners’ conclusions preempt other evidence of murder
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Colorado’s second-highest court ruled last week that an “undetermined” cause of death from a county coroner does not preclude prosecutors from presenting their own evidence that the death was actually a homicide. In the case before the Court of Appeals, Denver jurors convicted Robert W. Feldman in 2022 of murdering his wife, Stacy Feldman. He is…