Tag: us supreme court
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SCOTUS stalking decision does not apply to non-speech behavior, appeals court rules
Colorado’s second-highest court clarified on Thursday that a U.S. Supreme Court decision recognizing First Amendment protections for alleged stalkers does not apply to prosecutions where the defendant’s stalking is based on something other than their speech. By 7-2, the Supreme Court handed down its ruling in Counterman v. Colorado in 2023, a case out of Arapahoe County…
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Appeals court orders new child abuse trial after defense lawyer overrode client, admitted guilt
A man serving 28 years for child abuse will receive a new trial, Colorado’s second-highest court ruled on Thursday, because the defense attorney overrode his client’s wishes and told the jury the defendant was guilty in the overdose death of his son. After a mistrial, a second trial resulted in jurors convicting Joenny Manuel Astacio…
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Lakewood police acted unconstitutionally in using drug detection dog, Supreme Court rules by 5-2
Lakewood police violated the constitutional prohibition on unreasonable searches by ensuring a driver’s door remained open so a drug detection dog could sniff inside the vehicle without probable cause, the Colorado Supreme Court concluded on Monday. In the 5-2 decision, all justices agreed with the principle that law enforcement conducts a search if they “facilitate”…
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Appeals court clarifies path for claiming lawyer was constitutionally ineffective in contempt proceedings
Colorado’s second-highest court on Thursday clarified that people who are held in contempt of court do have a way to challenge their convictions based on their lawyer’s allegedly ineffective assistance. The U.S. Supreme Court has long recognized that a convicted defendant may argue their constitutional rights were violated because their attorney’s performance was objectively unreasonable in a…
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10th Circuit mulls whether to block Colorado’s ‘ghost gun’ law
Members of the Denver-based federal appeals court last week probed the details of a 2023 Colorado law prohibiting the possession and purchase of certain firearm components not imprinted with a serial number — deemed “ghost guns” — that a trial judge declined to block last year. To address the proliferation of guns privately assembled from kits or 3-D printers,…
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Judicial discipline commission compares SCOTUS ethical lapses to state judges’ disclosure violations
In an unusually detailed and strongly worded report, Colorado’s judicial discipline body made clear on Friday that dozens of judges broke the law by failing to file financial disclosure statements on time, but that not every instance merited discipline in light of related behavior from the nation’s highest court. The Colorado Commission on Judicial Discipline…
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Federal judge finds Miranda violation in interrogation of Denver firearms suspect
A federal judge concluded on Friday that a Denver police sergeant interrogated a man who was under arrest for a suspected firearms offense while failing to provide a Miranda warning first. U.S. District Court Judge S. Kato Crews acknowledged that defendant Dayvon Vaughns may not have said anything incriminating during the questioning, and his statements…
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2024 closes period of turnover on Colorado’s bench | YEAR IN REVIEW
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…
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Colorado Supreme Court wary of requiring child welfare workers to give Miranda warnings prior to interrogations
Members of the Colorado Supreme Court seemed hesitant on Wednesday to endorse the idea that child welfare workers must provide a Miranda warning before interrogating a parent in custody, even if the conversation will later be used in a criminal prosecution. The state’s Court of Appeals previously upheld the murder convictions of two men, both…