jury
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Appeals court upholds convictions following claims of racial bias in jury selection
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Colorado’s second-highest court upheld the convictions of two criminal defendants who alleged prosecutors improperly dismissed jurors of color from their trials, although one appellate judge believed a lower court had failed to properly evaluate the potential for discrimination. Each appeal in the cases of Eve Martinez out of Weld County and D’Shay Damu Evans out…
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State Supreme Court to hear criminal appeals involving racial bias, jury instructions
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The Colorado Supreme Court agreed to review whether an Arapahoe County judge, who is now a justice on the state’s highest court, correctly handled a potentially race-based dismissal of a Black juror, and whether jurors in an Adams County criminal trial should have received the definition of a key legal term – even though there is…
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Appeals court finds Arapahoe prosecutor misstated facts to eject Black juror, overturns convictions
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When asked to explain why he wanted to excuse a Black woman from the jury, an Arapahoe County prosecutor got offended, claimed he was being called racist, and offered inconsistent and factually untrue explanations for his actions. But while the prosecutor succeeded in convincing the trial judge to dismiss the juror, the state’s second-highest court…
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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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Appeals court orders new trial after Mesa County judge let biased jurors serve
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Four jurors should not have served on a woman’s Mesa County trial, the state’s Court of Appeals determined, because they all volunteered they would believe police officers over the word of a non-officer simply due to their status as law enforcement. A three-judge panel for the appellate court reversed the felony assault conviction of Brenda…
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Sponsors pull bill on racial bias in jury selection after opposition from DAs
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The Democratic sponsors of a bill to combat implicit racial bias in jury selection have opted against moving forward with their proposal, asking instead that the Colorado Supreme Court exercise its rulemaking power before the next legislative session. Sens. Pete Lee, D-Colorado Springs, and Julie Gonzales, D-Denver, had initially sought to address the concerns of…
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Tina Peters indicted by Mesa County grand jury on 10 counts in election equipment tampering probe
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Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters has been indicted by a grand jury on 10 counts related to an ongoing investigation into alleged election equipment tampering and official misconduct, prosecutors said Wednesday. Peters, a Republican candidate for Colorado secretary of state, faces seven felony charges and four misdemeanors stemming from allegations she violated security protocols last…
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State Supreme Court to take up case of sleeping juror
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The prosecution, defense attorneys and judge in a felony trial all noticed that a juror was repeatedly falling asleep, but the judge declined the defense’s request to “rouse him.” The state’s Court of Appeals later determined it could not review whether the sleeping juror compromised the defendant’s right to a fair trial because the defense…
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Judge who slashed jury $1.5 million verdict by 70% acted reasonably, appeals court finds
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A Jefferson County judge was justified in reducing a jury’s $1.5 million award to a car crash victim by 70%, the state’s second highest court ruled last week. Catherine Pisano, who underwent multiple medical procedures and experienced lingering pain after she was rear-ended on Interstate 70 in 2014, asked the Court of Appeals to find…
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State Supreme Court reverses man’s convictions for handling of race-based juror dismissal
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A man serving a 144-year sentence for kidnapping, sexually assaulting and trying to kill a teenager will receive a new trial, after the Colorado Supreme Court decided Monday that a Denver judge improperly handled the defendant’s assertion of racial discrimination in his jury selection. Members of the court found the prosecutor in Ray Ojeda’s 2015…
