public trial
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Colorado Supreme Court to hear 2 cases on pandemic-era trial livestreaming
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Four years after the COVID-19 pandemic first took hold in Colorado, the state Supreme Court announced on Monday it will review the constitutionality of two judges’ decisions to bar spectators from their courtrooms and instead rely upon livestreaming during a pair of criminal trials. At least three of the court’s seven members must agree to hear…
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Divided appeals court upholds Denver child sex assault conviction
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Colorado’s second-highest court upheld a man’s sex assault conviction earlier this month, although there was disagreement between appellate judges about whether jurors properly evaluated damaging evidence of the defendant’s conduct in light of his unusual defense at trial. A Denver jury convicted Mohammed Diawarra in 2021 for sexual assault on a child after he impregnated an…
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Appeals court says trial judges may retroactively justify excluding public from courtrooms
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In a move that potentially tees up the question for the state Supreme Court to resolve, Colorado’s second-highest court on Thursday ruled that judges who exclude members of the public from trial on questionable grounds may have the opportunity to justify their actions on appeal. The Sixth Amendment guarantees criminal defendants the right to a…
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Appeals court upholds ejection of disruptive observer from livestream of criminal trial
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Colorado’s second-highest court clarified last month that ejecting a disruptive observer from the livestream of a criminal trial will not typically violate the Sixth Amendment’s guarantee of a public trial. A three-judge panel for the Court of Appeals considered for the first time whether a Weld County judge effectively “closed” his courtroom mid-trial by banning…
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Gilpin County judge who kicked out defendant’s family committed public trial violation, court finds
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A Gilpin County judge who ejected the defendant’s family and other observers from his courtroom and told them to watch the livestream from elsewhere in the courthouse violated the defendant’s constitutional right to a public trial, Colorado’s second-highest court ruled last week. Michelle Re Nae Bialas was on trial for the second time when some…
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‘The law is the law’: Conifer students experience real appellate cases, quiz judges
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For a select group of attorneys who argued their cases before Colorado’s Court of Appeals on Tuesday, the experience was different in two key ways: First, they traded the ornate courtrooms of downtown Denver for the picturesque foothills 30 miles to the west. Second, the most pointed questioning did not necessarily come from the court.…
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Appeals court finds no constitutional violation after judge told public to leave courtroom
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Colorado’s second-highest court ruled on Thursday that an Arapahoe County judge did not violate the Sixth Amendment’s guarantee of a public trial when he ordered the one observer to a criminal proceeding out of his courtroom during jury selection. A three-judge panel for the Court of Appeals emphasized its findings in the case of Terance…
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State Supreme Court rules judge properly barred defendant’s wife from courtroom
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Even though an Arapahoe County judge made no mention of longstanding U.S. Supreme Court precedent on courtroom closures when he decided to exclude a defendant’s wife from the majority of her husband’s criminal trial, Colorado’s highest court has decided, 6-1, the banishment was nevertheless proper. The Sixth Amendment guarantees criminal defendants a public trial, and…
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State Supreme Court examines whether exclusion of wife from courtroom violated defendants’ rights
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Christopher Nicholas Cruse and Terrel Shameek Turner stood trial together in Arapahoe County in 2017 for the robbery of a marijuana dispensary where Cruse worked. On the third morning of the jury trial, the prosecution informed the trial judge that Cruse’s wife was arrested the prior day for “an encounter” in the hallway with one…
