racial bias
-
‘Mental gymnastics’: Lawyers, judge dissect Colorado Supreme Court’s racial bias rule for jury selection
—
by
Lawyers from the prosecution and defense communities, along with a trial judge, attempted on Thursday to demystify a recent rule change addressing racial discrimination in criminal jury selection, with some head-scratching about what the Colorado Supreme Court had actually done. “The proposal initially was not to clarify a complicated area of law, but was an…
-
Colorado Supreme Court adopts scaled-back racial bias rule after 2.5 years of consideration
—
by
The Colorado Supreme Court on Thursday adopted a long-stalled rule aimed at curbing racial discrimination in jury selection, which differs in substantial ways from the proposal its criminal rules committee forwarded more than two years ago. Prominently, the court removed the original default prohibition on lawyers removing jurors of color for certain reasons that, while not explicitly…
-
‘Weird,’ ‘confusing,’ ‘disheartening’: Colorado Supreme Court under fire over racial bias proposal
—
by
Several members of a Colorado Supreme Court advisory committee aired their frustration last week after the justices announced they had reached consensus on a proposal to combat racial discrimination in jury selection — by substantially watering down the protections built into the original draft. The Supreme Court took the unusual step of asking its Rules of…
-
Colorado Supreme Court reaches consensus on stalled racial bias rule, with heavy revisions
—
by
The Colorado Supreme Court notified a small group of lawyers and judges last week that it has tentatively agreed on a new rule addressing racial bias in jury selection for criminal trials, breaking its yearslong silence on the proposed reform. Most prominently, the court’s proposed path forward would no longer designate certain justifications for removing…
-
Appeals court upholds dismissal of Black juror for negative experiences with police
—
by
Colorado’s second-highest court agreed earlier this month that an Arapahoe County prosecutor did not remove a Black woman from a jury because of her race, even though she had explicitly attributed her prior negative interactions with police to “the color of my skin.” Under longstanding U.S. Supreme Court precedent, intentional race-based discrimination in jury selection…
-
2024 closes period of turnover on Colorado’s bench | YEAR IN REVIEW
—
by
New faces, new initiatives and a new judicial discipline process were among the developments in the third branch of government this year. Although much of the public’s focus was on the battle for the White House and Congress, several stories implicating the courts will have reverberations for years to come. Here is a look at…
-
Colorado Supreme Court, 5-2, says no new trial following ‘overt, in-court racism’
—
by
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…
-
Is Colorado’s Supreme Court about to kill implicit bias reform?
—
by
Last year, the Colorado Supreme Court indicated it would first decide a handful of pending cases alleging racial bias in jury selection before it took action on a proposal that would make it more difficult for prosecutors to remove jurors of color for reasons that, while not explicitly racial, nonetheless correlate to race. On Monday,…
-
Colorado justices vent about difficulty of evaluating racial bias in jury selection
—
by
Members of the Colorado Supreme Court last week expressed frustration with the difficulties of pinpointing unconstitutional racial bias in jury selection, especially when relatively few details are available after the fact about what happened at trial. “We’re trying to guess what’s in someone’s mind, someone’s heart, even when they may not be aware of it,…
-
Colorado justices conflicted about using views on police bias to remove jurors of color
—
by
For two hours on Tuesday, the Colorado Supreme Court grappled with a question that could significantly affect the composition of juries going forward: If a juror of color, based on her experiences, says that bias in policing exists, would removing that person from the jury pool be tantamount to dismissing her because of her race?…
