justice william hood
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Colorado justices, 4-2, rule tenants have right to a jury trial in eviction cases
Noting that trial judges across the state are routinely denying tenants the ability to have a jury hear their eviction cases, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled on Monday that certain types of disputes do qualify for a jury trial after all. By 4-2, the Supreme Court’s majority acknowledged the concern that county courts, where evictions…
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Colorado justices, by 5-2, reverse sanction on prosecution in Ouray rape case
The Colorado Supreme Court ruled on Monday, by 5-2, that a Ouray County judge wrongly prohibited the prosecution from using late-disclosed evidence in a hearing to determine whether probable cause existed to bring the defendant to trial. The court’s majority believed the judge’s failure to explain the basis for the sanction doomed his order. However,…
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Technical oversight or key error? Colorado justices weigh reversal of Denver murder conviction
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 Supreme Court finds Aurora police committed no Miranda violation when interrogating suspect
Aurora police did not need to provide a Miranda warning to a road rage suspect before interrogating him outside his apartment building in an accusatory manner, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled on Monday. Under the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Miranda v. Arizona, law enforcement must inform suspects of their constitutional rights to remain silent…
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Colorado Supreme Court term in review: High-profile cases, statistics and more
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 Supreme Court, 5-2, says no new trial following ‘overt, in-court racism’
The Colorado Supreme Court concluded on Monday that a Black defendant did not deserve a new trial after one juror disclosed he moved to the overwhelmingly White jurisdiction because he “didn’t want diversity,” and the trial judge refused to dismiss him for bias. By 5-2, the court believed Reginald Keith Clark had not shown the…
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Colorado justices wrestle with whether woman’s 2.5 hours under police supervision was ‘custody’
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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Boulder County detectives violated suspect’s Miranda rights, Supreme Court rules
Boulder County sheriff’s detectives continued to interrogate a murder suspect even after he definitively invoked his constitutional right to remain silent, the Colorado Supreme Court concluded on Monday in barring the prosecution from using the man’s in-custody statements at trial. The Boulder County District Attorney’s Office insisted a pair of detectives attempted to end the…
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Colorado justices explore limits of anti-discrimination law in Masterpiece Cakeshop appeal
Members of the Colorado Supreme Court explored on Tuesday the tension between LGBTQ customers’ ability to be free from discrimination in the marketplace and business owners’ competing right not to be forced to express messages that violate their conscience. During oral arguments, some justices noted the difficulty of disentangling customers’ protected characteristics, like race or…
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Colorado’s justices hesitant to find lifetime sentences unconstitutional for felony murder
Members of the Colorado Supreme Court on Monday gave an unenthusiastic reception to the idea that defendants currently serving life without the possibility of parole for felony murder are subject to cruel and unusual or “grossly disproportionate” sentences. Felony murder does not require that a person kill the victim themselves. Instead, a defendant can be…