judge sueanna johnson
-
Divided appeals court finds no misconduct from Denver prosecutor’s inflammatory argument
While the Colorado Supreme Court has established that prosecutors may not characterize a witness’s testimony as a “lie,” the state’s second-highest court has decided, by 2-1, a Denver prosecutor did not cross the line by repeatedly using a synonym for “lie.” Jurors convicted Rigoberto E. Fernandez in 2015 for stabbing a man at Montbello Recreation…
-
Colorado Supreme Court takes up El Paso County criminal case
The Colorado Supreme Court announced on Monday that it will hear an appeal out of El Paso County questioning how criminal defendants can challenge the validity of an order to pay restitution to their victims, if the order occurs beyond the legal deadline. At least three of the court’s seven members must agree to review…
-
Colorado Supreme Court finds no requirement for strong evidence of guilt in special type of guilty plea
Criminal defendants may validly enter into a specific type of guilty plea, even if they insist they are innocent and no strong evidence of guilt supports the plea, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled on Monday. More than five decades ago, in the case of North Carolina v. Alford, the nation’s highest court upheld the constitutionality of…
-
Appeals court confirms Arapahoe County judge’s bias did not affect parenting case
Although a former Arapahoe County judge admitted to racial bias and received a high-profile public censure two years ago for her misconduct, Colorado’s second-highest court agreed there was no evidence Natalie T. Chase harbored bias against a Hispanic father specifically when she terminated his parental rights. A three-judge panel for the Court of Appeals decided…
-
Colorado appeals court recognizes right to effective counsel in forced-medication cases
For the first time, Colorado’s second-highest court has recognized there is a right to effective assistance of counsel for people involved in criminal cases whom the government wishes to forcibly medicate. A three-judge panel relied on similar decisions from other states and the principle that involuntary medication proceedings can result in a loss of liberty,…
-
Colorado appeals court reverses Adams County murder conviction due to judge’s faulty analogy
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 – exclusively from Adams County – after the Colorado Supreme Court decided last January that some…
-
‘The law is the law’: Conifer students experience real appellate cases, quiz judges
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.…
-
Colorado credit union’s update of terms, ‘buried’ in email, provided sufficient notice to customers, court says
A Colorado credit union gave sufficient notice to consumers when it announced a change to customers’ legal rights in two sentences at the bottom of an email that required multiple clicks to see the new policy, the Court of Appeals ruled last week. Although a three-judge panel of the appellate court agreed Ent Credit Union…
-
Guilty, yet innocent: Colorado justices examine requirements for unique type of plea
In 1970, the U.S. Supreme Court gave its approval to a special type of guilty plea, one in which a criminal defendant maintains his innocence while, at the same time, accepting a plea deal from the prosecution. Those “Alford pleas,” named after the case North Carolina v. Alford, are permissible when a defendant believes it is…