sex offense
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Colorado Supreme Court ponders where to draw line on sex offenders living with child relatives
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The Colorado Supreme Court on Wednesday grappled with how to ensure a convicted defendant’s relationship with a minor family member is protected, while at the same time allowing courts to impose no-contact directives with children as part of sex offender probation. Following his Adams County conviction, Abdullahi Salah lived with his sister and her infant…
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Colorado Supreme Court ponders where to draw line on sex offenders living with child relatives
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The Colorado Supreme Court on Wednesday grappled with how to ensure a convicted defendant’s relationship with a minor family member is protected, while at the same time allowing courts to impose no-contact directives with children as part of sex offender probation. Following his Adams County conviction, Abdullahi Salah lived with his sister and her infant…
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Colorado justices ponder whether evidence enough to convict man of sex crime
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The Colorado Supreme Court considered this week whether Jefferson County prosecutors actually had enough evidence to convict a man of a child sex crime, based on a one-minute, sexually suggestive conversation for which he is serving six years to life in prison. Previously, the state’s Court of Appeals concluded James Clayton Johnson’s alleged comments toward…
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Colorado justices ponder parole requirements for juvenile sex offenders amid constitutional challenge
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Colorado’s justices on Tuesday appeared to believe the state law authorizing lengthy sentences for adult sex offenders does, when applied to juveniles, account for the guardrails necessary to comply with the U.S. Constitution. However, that determination would only be a piece of the larger puzzle, due to the unusual manner in which the case of…
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Federal judge dismisses challenge to ‘frustrating’ delays in sex offender treatment behind bars
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A federal judge recently dismissed an incarcerated man’s challenge to his lack of sex offender treatment in the Colorado Department of Corrections, despite having no idea when he will have access to that mandatory component of his criminal sentence. U.S. District Court Senior Judge William J. Martínez determined David A. Wismer III did not sufficiently allege…
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Colorado Supreme Court to scrutinize parole requirements for juvenile sex offenders
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The Colorado Supreme Court has agreed to answer whether the state law authorizing indefinite, potentially lifetime sentences for sex offenses makes room for the special considerations that must be given to juveniles who are tried as adults. In a rare move, the court accepted the question not through the usual appeals process, but following a…
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Colorado Supreme Court rejects expanded role for juries in analyzing prior convictions
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The Colorado Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected the argument that juries should be the ones who increase the severity of a defendant’s convictions by evaluating prior convictions – meaning judges alone retain the authority to transform a misdemeanor into a felony in some instances. The question of whether juries should decide beyond a reasonable doubt whether…
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Colorado Supreme Court finds no requirement for strong evidence of guilt in special type of guilty plea
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Criminal defendants may validly enter into a specific type of guilty plea, even if they insist they are innocent and no strong evidence of guilt supports the plea, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled on Monday. More than five decades ago, in the case of North Carolina v. Alford, the nation’s highest court upheld the constitutionality of…
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Douglas County judge subjected man to lifetime sex offender registration without saying why, appeals court finds
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A Douglas County judge did not provide a clear reason why she designated a man a “sexually violent predator” and subjected him to lifetime sex offender registration, the Court of Appeals ruled on Thursday. Under Colorado law, a person convicted of a sex offense is labeled a sexually violent predator when, among other things, the…
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Colorado Supreme Court to hear criminal appeals on racial bias, ‘Make My Day’ defense
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The Colorado Supreme Court announced earlier this month that it will review multiple criminal cases, with issues ranging from racial bias in jury selection and the meaning of a parent-child relationship to the law justifying deadly force against home intruders. At least three of the court’s seven members must agree to hear a case on…
