justice carlos samour
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Colorado justices weigh broad definition of ‘criminal justice agency’ in open records lawsuit
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Although members of the Colorado Supreme Court appeared wary on Tuesday of finding a large swath of the government can be deemed a “criminal justice agency,” they also recognized lawmakers used broad language to seemingly sweep public entities into that category. The case at hand questions whether the Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) Board, as…
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Colorado Supreme Court weighs effort to streamline magistrate rules, aid litigants
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Members of the Colorado Supreme Court took comments on Tuesday about proposed changes to the rules governing magistrates, where they heard that the attempt to streamline protocols still presents challenges for litigants and for the trial judges who review magistrate decisions. Magistrates are judicial employees who are not judges but who handle aspects of cases in the trial…
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Technical oversight or key error? Colorado justices weigh reversal of Denver murder conviction
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The Colorado Supreme Court appeared doubtful on Tuesday that the failure to formally designate a witness as an expert in front of the jury rose to the level of mistake that would require a new murder trial for the defendant. Denver jurors convicted Pete Paul Martinez of stabbing 77-year-old Lewis Easterday to death near Cheesman Park in 2016. Martinez…
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Colorado justices cautious of letting litigants make open records requests while suing governments
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Members of the Colorado Supreme Court grappled on Tuesday with two competing principles: honoring public access to government records, on the one hand, while preventing litigants from deluging public bodies with open records requests at the same time they are suing them. Previously, the state’s second-highest court ruled that plaintiffs are not forbidden from using…
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Colorado Supreme Court lays out frustration with current method of ID’ing racial bias in jury selection
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Colorado’s justices escalated their frustration on Monday with the existing framework for evaluating race-motivated dismissals of jurors in criminal trials, months after the state Supreme Court also invited lawmakers to do their part to fix the problem. Under longstanding U.S. Supreme Court precedent, intentional race-based discrimination in jury selection is unconstitutional. Normally, parties may exercise…
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Colorado Supreme Court term in review: High-profile cases, statistics and more
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With major decisions curtailing the power of administrative agencies, clarifying the scope of gun rights for domestic abusers and establishing immunity for official presidential acts, the U.S. Supreme Court’s recently concluded term ushered in monumental shifts in jurisprudence and a renewed focus on some members’ conduct off the bench. Meanwhile, the Colorado Supreme Court quietly…
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Colorado justices find Denver judge appropriately subbed in alternate juror mid-deliberations
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The Colorado Supreme Court concluded on Monday that a Denver judge did what he needed to do to ensure a defendant received a fair trial after one juror became ill in the middle of deliberations and had to be replaced with the alternate. Ricardo Castro’s jury deliberated for 11 hours total until it recessed on…
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Colorado justices wrestle with whether woman’s 2.5 hours under police supervision was ‘custody’
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Members of the Colorado Supreme Court wrestled last month with a question that previously divided the state’s second-highest court: Did Craig law enforcement effectively place a heavily intoxicated woman in custody and interrogate her for the murder of her husband without providing the necessary Miranda warning? The answer could implicate the breadth of protection afforded…
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Colorado Supreme Court wary of letting judges restrict defense lawyers’ work on postconviction claims
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Members of the Colorado Supreme Court seemed sympathetic last week to the idea that trial judges, under the current rules for criminal cases, cannot restrict defense attorneys from investigating postconviction claims their clients raise when at least one of the claims has merit. Convicted defendants may seek postconviction relief for specific reasons, including that their sentence is…
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Colorado Supreme Court shoots down condo association’s lawsuit against Aspen for construction defects
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The Colorado Supreme Court clarified on Monday that litigants may not use a judicial doctrine focused on breaches of contract to sue municipalities for negligently constructed housing, effectively sidestepping the broad immunity state law provides to government entities. The Colorado Governmental Immunity Act, with limited exceptions, shields public entities from lawsuits over injuries they cause.…