prosecution
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Appeals court ‘reluctantly’ sides with Jeffco DA in disapproving judge’s self-defense ruling
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Colorado’s second-highest court, by 2-1, agreed last week that a Jefferson County judge should not have let jurors consider whether a defendant acted in self-defense at a trial that resulted in his acquittal for menacing a police officer. However, members of the three-judge Court of Appeals panel criticized District Attorney Alexis King’s office for bringing…
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Colorado Supreme Court overturns judge’s prohibition on using victim’s journals as evidence
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The Colorado Supreme Court on Friday overturned a judge’s order that prohibited Boulder County prosecutors from using the 25-year-old journal entries of an alleged victim to prove the defendant committed sexual assault on a child. In a brief April 25 order, the justices rejected the notion that the district attorney’s office should have allowed the…
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El Paso County prosecutor’s pattern of violations prompts appeals court to uphold dismissal of charges
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Colorado’s second-highest court last week agreed an El Paso County judge was justified in dismissing some of the charges from a criminal case in response to a prosecutor’s repeated failure to timely disclose evidence. The Fourth Judicial District Attorney’s Office argued that District Court Judge Samuel Evig had not found prosecutor Jessica Kiel committed a…
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Colorado Supreme Court intervenes in second Weld County case after botched cell phone search
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The Colorado Supreme Court stepped in to do damage control this month in a second Weld County criminal case, following a trial judge’s failure to contain the fallout from a botched cell phone search. Marquise Shadell Daniels and Laura Tellers separately have sought the Supreme Court’s intervention after more than 120 confidential attorney-client communications fell…
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Colorado justices to examine whether defendants must reveal evidence in postconviction challenges
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The Colorado Supreme Court signaled last week that it will address whether judges have the authority to make defendants who are challenging their convictions disclose details to the prosecution about what their expert witnesses will say. In contrast to direct appeals of criminal convictions, defendants may pursue postconviction relief in the trial courts for limited…
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Appeals judge trains fire on Colorado Supreme Court’s landmark restitution ruling
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One member of Colorado’s second-highest court has mounted an unusual effort in recent weeks to broadcast his dissatisfaction with a state Supreme Court decision that resulted in scores of financial restitution orders to crime victims being overturned on appeal. In Colorado, when a convicted defendant is required to pay restitution, prosecutors typically must provide the…
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Appeals judge trains fire on Colorado Supreme Court’s landmark restitution ruling
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One member of Colorado’s second-highest court has mounted an unusual effort in recent weeks to broadcast his dissatisfaction with a state Supreme Court decision that resulted in scores of financial restitution orders to crime victims being overturned on appeal. In Colorado, when a convicted defendant is required to pay restitution, prosecutors typically must provide the…
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Appeals judge trains fire on Colorado Supreme Court’s landmark restitution ruling
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One member of Colorado’s second-highest court has mounted an unusual effort in recent weeks to broadcast his dissatisfaction with a state Supreme Court decision that resulted in scores of financial restitution orders to crime victims being overturned on appeal. In Colorado, when a convicted defendant is required to pay restitution, prosecutors typically must provide the…
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Colorado Supreme Court expands prosecutors’ ability to introduce children’s hearsay testimony
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In a pair of rulings addressing out-of-court statements from child victims, the Colorado Supreme Court on Monday made it easier for prosecutors to introduce hearsay evidence against defendants accused of sexually assaulting minors. Out-of-court testimony aimed at proving the truth is generally inadmissible at trial, as defendants cannot cross-examine the witness in front of jurors.…
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Colorado lawyers sympathetic toward Kato Crews’ botched answer at confirmation hearing
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After U.S. Magistrate Judge S. Kato Crews drew a blank at his confirmation hearing when asked to describe the holding of a major U.S. Supreme Court decision, the embarrassing lapse quickly generated condemnation online. “ANOTHER Biden judicial nominee flunks basic legal quiz,” tweeted JCN, an advocacy group for conservative judicial nominees. But in Colorado, the…
