racial bias
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Justices critical of proposed racial bias rule supported by defense attorneys, trial judges
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Colorado’s Supreme Court justices gave a less-than-enthusiastic reception on Tuesday to a proposed rule that, if enacted, would aim to curb lawyers’ ability to remove people of color from criminal juries for reasons related to race. During a nearly three-hour hearing, prosecutors from across the state uniformly lined up to condemn the suggested change, with…
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Appeals court finds no racial discrimination in Black man’s dismissal from El Paso County jury
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Colorado’s second-highest court on Thursday found no intentional racial discrimination at play when El Paso County prosecutors removed the only Black man from a Black defendant’s jury, after misrepresenting what he actually said during jury selection. Michael Ellis is serving a prison sentence of more than 200 years after a jury convicted him in 2019…
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Appeals court finds no discrimination in prosecutors’ removal of 2 Hispanic jurors
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Colorado’s second-highest court has declined to find Weld County prosecutors engaged in unconstitutional racial discrimination by dismissing two Hispanic men from serving on a Hispanic defendant’s jury. Jurors convicted Javier Hernandez-Martinez in 2018 on three drug distribution charges and he received a four-year prison sentence. On appeal, Hernandez-Martinez argued the prosecution violated the U.S. Supreme…
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Colorado Supreme Court accepts 2 cases on capital punishment, racially-biased juror
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The Colorado Supreme Court agreed to hear two criminal appeals on Monday that question whether defendants are entitled to bail for crimes that formerly qualified for a death sentence, and whether a Black man convicted in an overwhelmingly white county deserves a new trial because one juror admitted he “didn’t want diversity.” At least three…
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State Supreme Court explores role of shifting explanations in race-based juror dismissals
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Over 30 years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court recognized that purposeful racial discrimination in jury selection is unconstitutional, requiring prosecutors to now cite a “race-neutral reason” if a defendant challenges their decision to remove a juror of color. This week, the Colorado Supreme Court considered a narrow question implicating that protocol: If an appeals court…
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Appeals court reluctantly agrees dismissal of Hispanic juror not a constitutional violation
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Despite its deep skepticism that Adams County prosecutors removed a Hispanic juror from a Hispanic defendant’s trial for reasons other than race, Colorado’s second-highest court on Thursday nevertheless found the prosecution’s conduct did not amount to a violation of the constitutional prohibition on race-based dismissals. A three-judge panel for the Court of Appeals emphasized the…
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10th Circuit finds no discrimination after prosecutor dismissed all Hispanic jurors in trial
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The Denver-based federal appeals court concluded on Monday that a prosecutor who dismissed all the Hispanic members of a jury pool did not violate the longstanding prohibition against intentional racial discrimination in jury selection. A three-judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit declined to grant a new trial for Jack…
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State Supreme Court opens comment period for jury bias proposal
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The Colorado Supreme Court has decided to take up a proposal addressing implicit racial bias in jury selection, opening a public comment period for rules that would curb the use of tactics historically used to exclude jurors of color. Previous efforts to address racial bias have faltered. Last year, the Supreme Court declined to advance…
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Appeals court pushes back against racial bias in jury selection
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Colorado’s second-highest court laid down new rules on Thursday to discourage the exclusion of people of color from juries for reasons that, while not explicitly racial, are nevertheless correlated with race. Two separate panels of the state’s Court of Appeals issued rulings that, in part, forbid the dismissal of Black jurors solely because they reveal…
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Appeals court upholds dismissal of Hispanic juror for believing justice system is racist
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Colorado’s second-highest court found no problem with the prosecution dismissing a Hispanic man from an Arapahoe County jury because of his observation that the judicial system is unfair to racial minorities. But for defendant Dustin Aaron Schwarz, the exclusion of the man from his jury exemplified a larger concern that people of color are being…