jury selection
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Senate advances judicial nominee, Montezuma County judge agrees to discipline | COURT CRAWL
Welcome to Court Crawl, Colorado Politics’ roundup of news from the third branch of government. A U.S. Senate committee advanced a judicial nominee from Colorado, plus a Montezuma County judge agreed to receive discipline for his misconduct that stops short of removal from the bench. Senate advances Domenico • The Senate Judiciary Committee voted along…
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‘Mental gymnastics’: Lawyers, judge dissect Colorado Supreme Court’s racial bias rule for jury selection
Lawyers from the prosecution and defense communities, along with a trial judge, attempted on Thursday to demystify a recent rule change addressing racial discrimination in criminal jury selection, with some head-scratching about what the Colorado Supreme Court had actually done. “The proposal initially was not to clarify a complicated area of law, but was an…
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Judges speak about mentorship and bench trials, federal court revises jury selection protocol | COURT CRAWL
Welcome to Court Crawl, Colorado Politics’ roundup of news from the third branch of government. Colorado’s judges spoke to lawyers about mentorship and how to approach bench trials, plus the federal trial court made revisions to its plan for randomly selecting jurors across the state. Heard on appeal • The Colorado Supreme Court will decide whether…
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Appeals court finds no discrimination in dismissals of jurors of color across 3 cases
Colorado’s second-highest court recently agreed prosecutors did not unconstitutionally remove jurors of color in three criminal cases for racial reasons. The Court of Appeals encountered significant variation in how the trial judges approached the prosecution’s dismissal of each juror. One judge explained the circumstances at length, one judge gave virtually no explanation and the third…
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Colorado Supreme Court adopts scaled-back racial bias rule after 2.5 years of consideration
The Colorado Supreme Court on Thursday adopted a long-stalled rule aimed at curbing racial discrimination in jury selection, which differs in substantial ways from the proposal its criminal rules committee forwarded more than two years ago. Prominently, the court removed the original default prohibition on lawyers removing jurors of color for certain reasons that, while not explicitly…
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‘Weird,’ ‘confusing,’ ‘disheartening’: Colorado Supreme Court under fire over racial bias proposal
Several members of a Colorado Supreme Court advisory committee aired their frustration last week after the justices announced they had reached consensus on a proposal to combat racial discrimination in jury selection — by substantially watering down the protections built into the original draft. The Supreme Court took the unusual step of asking its Rules of…
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Colorado Supreme Court reaches consensus on stalled racial bias rule, with heavy revisions
The Colorado Supreme Court notified a small group of lawyers and judges last week that it has tentatively agreed on a new rule addressing racial bias in jury selection for criminal trials, breaking its yearslong silence on the proposed reform. Most prominently, the court’s proposed path forward would no longer designate certain justifications for removing…
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Appeals court rejects allegations of racial discrimination in jury selection in 2 cases
Colorado’s second-highest court ruled last month that prosecutors in two cases did not engage in intentional racial discrimination when they dismissed two women of color from the jury pool. Under longstanding U.S. Supreme Court precedent, purposeful race-based discrimination in jury selection is unconstitutional. Normally, parties may exercise “peremptory strikes” of jurors without citing a reason.…
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Appeals court upholds dismissal of Black juror for negative experiences with police
Colorado’s second-highest court agreed earlier this month that an Arapahoe County prosecutor did not remove a Black woman from a jury because of her race, even though she had explicitly attributed her prior negative interactions with police to “the color of my skin.” Under longstanding U.S. Supreme Court precedent, intentional race-based discrimination in jury selection…
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2024 closes period of turnover on Colorado’s bench | YEAR IN REVIEW
New faces, new initiatives and a new judicial discipline process were among the developments in the third branch of government this year. Although much of the public’s focus was on the battle for the White House and Congress, several stories implicating the courts will have reverberations for years to come. Here is a look at…