Tag: judge daniel taubman
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Divided appeals court finds no prosecutorial misconduct in prison assault case
Colorado’s second-highest court concluded last week that a Lincoln County prosecutor did not misstate the law to a degree that undermined a jury’s assault verdict against the defendant. During closing arguments in Phillip Archuleta’s 2023 trial, the prosecutor suggested to jurors that Archuleta did not have to make contact with a corrections officer during a…
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SCOTUS decides Colorado case, state’s newest justice authors first opinion | COURT CRAWL
Welcome to Court Crawl, Colorado Politics’ roundup of news from the third branch of government. The nation’s highest court decided a First Amendment case out of Colorado, plus the state’s newest justice issued her first opinion since joining the Colorado Supreme Court last month. Heard on appeal • The state Supreme Court decided that news organizations…
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Colorado Supreme Court accepts cases about reliability of gun-to-bullet matching
The Colorado Supreme Court announced on Monday that it will hear two cases questioning the reliability of expert testimony that purports to identify whether a specific bullet was fired from a specific gun. At least three of the court’s seven members must agree to take up a case on appeal. There is currently one vacancy,…
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Second appeals judge voices concerns about new ‘reasonable doubt’ instruction
Another member of Colorado’s second-highest court registered his concern on Thursday that a portion of the recently revised “reasonable doubt” definition improperly lowers the prosecution’s burden to prove a defendant guilty. Judge Daniel M. Taubman wrote that the current instruction advising jurors to acquit whenever there is “a real possibility the defendant is not guilty”…
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Appeals court says state campaign finance enforcement framework is constitutional
Colorado’s second-highest court agreed last week that the state’s current method of adjudicating campaign finance complaints is constitutional and is not the “very definition of tyranny.” For several years, state law has allowed any person to file a complaint alleging a campaign finance violation, which the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office then screens, decides whether to dismiss…
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Appeals court overturns Archuleta County judge’s faulty child neglect ruling
Colorado’s second-highest court agreed an Archuleta County judge abruptly and wrongly deemed a man’s children neglected after he did not appear for a hearing, even though there was no basis for such a ruling. The county opened a child neglect case for two children based on the mother’s alleged substance abuse. Their father, identified as…
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Appeals court rejects notion that coroners’ conclusions preempt other evidence of murder
Colorado’s second-highest court ruled last week that an “undetermined” cause of death from a county coroner does not preclude prosecutors from presenting their own evidence that the death was actually a homicide. In the case before the Court of Appeals, Denver jurors convicted Robert W. Feldman in 2022 of murdering his wife, Stacy Feldman. He is…
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Appeals court divided over meaning of judge’s parenting order
Colorado’s second-highest court was split last week over whether to uphold an Arapahoe County judge’s parenting order, with two appellate judges interpreting the language differently than the parties and the third appellate judge. In the underlying case, the county filed a child neglect case on behalf of a 4-year-old girl. At an October 2023 hearing,…
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Appeals court takes no issue with defense lawyer who admitted client’s guilt at trial
Colorado’s second-highest court on Thursday concluded an attorney did not violate his client’s constitutional right to make key decisions about his defense when the lawyer unilaterally told the jury his client committed some of the charged crimes. The U.S. Supreme Court has provided guidance in recent years about when criminal defense attorneys may concede their…
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Colorado Supreme Court takes up cases on Title IX investigations, COVID campus closure
The Colorado Supreme Court recently agreed to hear multiple cases implicating a witness’ immunity for making defamatory statements in a school sex assault investigation, whether a university can be sued for closing its campus early in the COVID-19 pandemic, and whether a man should receive a new trial for his numerous securities fraud convictions. At…