Colorado Supreme Court

Edward Montour guilty plea ruling: David Lane on death penalty, James Holmes, "bloody 18th"

At a February hearing, Edward Montour sought to withdraw his guilty plea for a 2002 murder in an effort to avoid the death penalty he'd previously sought. The office of 18th Judicial District DA George Brauchler, who's also seeking death for accused Aurora theater shooter James Holmes, argued agains ... More >>

Fetus = person? District court judges have come to different conclusions

This week's cover story, "The Meaning of Life," tells the story behind a seemingly contradictory legal argument being made by Englewood-based Catholic Health Initiatives: that a fetus is not a person. The court case in which it asserts that claim has now been appealed to the Colorado Supreme Court. ... More >>

Is a fetus a person? The Colorado Supreme Court may have to decide.

See also: Fetus = person? District court judges have come to different conclusions

Gun ban in college buildings?: Boulder rep plans legislation despite court ruling

It just doesn't make sense for lawmakers to allow guns on college campuses, where the risks of suicide or shootings tied to mental health illness can be high. At least that's an argument of Boulder Representative Claire Levy, who is crafting legislation that would add campus buildings to the list of ... More >>

CU staffer with gun permit accidentally injures two: First shooting of its kind on state campus?

After winning a long battle to allow those with concealed-carry permits to bring guns onto campuses in Colorado, a gun-rights organization is now responding to what appears to be the first-ever accidental discharge on a local campus from someone with the proper permit. The staffer who fired a shot a ... More >>

CU profs can't cancel classes if student is legally carrying a gun, administrator says

Earlier this week, we told you about CU-Boulder's new regs concerning concealed-carry permits -- changes necessitated by a Colorado Supreme Court ruling allowing them on campus two years after the university added Nerf guns to its banned weapons list. Shortly thereafter, one professor said he'd canc ... More >>

CU-Boulder doesn't think gun restrictions discriminate against concealed-carry holders

In March, two years after adding Nerf guns to its list of banned weapons, CU was ordered by the Colorado Supreme Court to allow concealed-carry-permit holders to pack heat on campus. Now, CU-Boulder has announced new rules restricting access in undergrad dorms and at events -- but a spokesman doesn' ... More >>

Michael Hancock picks the right setting for today's State of the City speech

Mayor Michael Hancock will deliver his State of the City address at 10 a.m. today, a year after he took office. The setting for the speech, City Park, was chosen over a month ago, but it symbolizes two of the major (and overlapping) challenges he'll face over the next three years:

Gilpin County's Negro Hill is renamed Aunt Clara Brown Hill. Finally.

Medical marijuana: One Love benefit for Jason Beinor raises funds, hackles

Tonight, Hayter's & Co., at 1920 Blake Street, will host One Love, a benefit for the legal fund of Jason Beinor, a medical marijuana patient whose firing is at the center of a case activists hope will reach the Colorado Supreme Court. The name of the bash frosts Timothy Tipton, who's hosted events u ... More >>

Personhood Amendment petition drive launches with event at Planned Parenthood

At 2 p.m. today, the Colorado Personhood Coalition will hold a press conference at a very pointed location -- a local Planned Parenthood office -- to tout the beginning of a petition drive for the latest version of a Personhood resolution. And campaign reps including Kristi Burton Brown, the face of ... More >>

Medical marijuana probation ban sentences patients to problems, attorney says

Last week, we told you about a court ruling that bans medical marijuana patients from using cannabis while on probation. The decision was praised in a Denver Post editorial, but George Yingling, the attorney who represented Leonard Charles Watkins, the man at the center of the case, believes it was ... More >>

Police misconduct records and more to be off-limits under two new bills

Despite the obligatory squawks from lawmakers about the need for transparency in government, few of their actions are quite as transparent as their efforts to shield internal bureaucratic processes from outside scrutiny. For a demonstration of this principle in action, look no further than two bills ... More >>

Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol celebrates Supreme Court wins with Signature Bomb

Mason Tvert.​The Colorado Supreme Court has rejected two title-board-related challenges to the Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Act of 2012 -- one by gadfly Doug Bruce, another from advocate Corey Donahue. Although these matters may have seemed like distractions, Regulate proponent Mason Tvert ... More >>

Colorado's probate courts riddled with neglect, lack of accountability, report finds

Flickr​Colorado does a miserable job of monitoring the guardians and conservators who control the finances -- and, in many cases, the living conditions -- of incapacitated adults, minor wards and other vulnerable populations, according to a scathing report released yesterday by the Office of t ... More >>

Legislative maps: Commission's Mario Carrera on new boundaries, need for unaffiliated voices

Denver's Senate map.​A final vote from the Colorado Reapportionment Commission yesterday announced a consensus on the state's first new legislative maps in the past ten years. The commission is led by its sole politically independent member, Entravision CEO Mario Carrera -- and he's got some i ... More >>

Ward Churchill case heading to Colorado Supreme Court: Not about 9/11, attorney says

Ward Churchill.​Last November, when the Colorado Court of Appeals rejected ex-CU prof Ward Churchill's bid to get his old job back, attorney David Lane admitted that "the odds of either the Colorado Supreme Court or the U.S. Supreme Court looking at the case are slim." But he and Churchill hav ... More >>

Marijuana advocate seeks $ for HB 1284 suit, chides lawyers who pledged to sue but didn't

Kathleen Chippi.​Kathleen Chippi is among the area's most active medical marijuana activists; see a video of her below going after both current Denver mayoral candidate Chris Romer and Colorado Attorney General John Suthers. Her latest mission: to raise funds for a lawsuit to stop official imp ... More >>

Adultery and fornication: Can Coloradans tell the difference?

​Before there was an Internet, there were people with long memories -- and two of them, former lawmakers John Bermingham and Jerry Kopel, have amazing stories of the last time Colorado grappled with the issues of adultery and fornication -- if there is any difference between the two.

Matt Arnold on losing Colorado Bar Association suit, his bid to chair state Republican party

Matt Arnold.​Matt Arnold, the man behind Clear the Bench, which aimed to throw the bums off the Colorado Supreme Court, has been on a losing streak. Colorado Ethics Watch came out on top in a dispute over whether Clear the Bench should have filed as an issues committee (although CEW was assess ... More >>

Ward Churchill defending Constitution, Court of Appeals trashing it, says David Lane of CU case

Ward Churchill.​Controversial University of Colorado at Boulder professor Ward Churchill has lost his latest bid to get his old job back, with the Colorado Court of Appeals upholding Denver District Court judge Larry Naves's earlier ruling; read it in its entirety below. The decision angers Ch ... More >>

Clear the Bench Colorado poll numbers show voter discontent with Colorado justices

​Clear the Bench's Matt Arnold says an overwhelming majority of Colorado voters will not be reelecting four Colorado Supreme Court Justices this fall, and he has the poll numbers to prove it. A phone survey of roughly 900 Colorado voters -- relatively evenly balanced between age, sex and poli ... More >>

Scott McInnis agrees to repay foundation, but he still plagiarized

Scott McInnis​It's been a good week to make fun of Dan Maes. But this whole bikes equal communism, let's take away jobs circus might not have mattered had it not been for his opponent's colossal stumble in the polls. Scott McInnis, as you will recall, plagiarized a report on water issues for w ... More >>

Scott McInnis's fundraising numbers since scandal are grim -- so why's he pleased by them?

Scott McInnis.​According to the Denver Post, Republican guv hopeful Scott McInnis's fundraising numbers during the second half of July plunged in the wake of his plagiarism problems -- i.e., revelations about the $300,000 he accepted for writing water articles partially nicked from a Colorado ... More >>

Bare nipples at Boulder city council meeting: David Lane takes on Seth Brigham's cause

Seth Brigham being arrested.​To protest an ordinance that might have criminalized women who publicly bare their nipples, Boulder's Seth Brigham stripped to his boxers at a February city council meeting -- and was promptly arrested. Four months later, David Lane, fresh from winning a $5.9 mill ... More >>

Pot jokes: The Colorado Supreme Court declines to hear mine

​The Colorado Supreme Court does not care about my definition of a caregiver. This week, the court declined to consider the appeals court ruling that upheld the controversial conviction of Stacy Clendenin, a Longmont medical marijuana grower who was convicted of drug distribution because she ... More >>

Mary Mullarkey retirement: Clear the Bench's Matt Arnold says pressure's driving her out

Mary Mullarkey will leave the bench in November.​During yesterday's announcement about her intention to retire in November, Colorado Supreme Court Chief Justice Mary Mullarkey said a vigorous campaign against her and three other justices had nothing to do with her decision. That's Mullarkey m ... More >>

Bull semen debate gets sticky at Colorado statehouse

An illustration from ClearTheBenchColorado.org's page: Justice is blindfolded but not gagged.​In January, we introduced you to Matt Arnold of ClearTheBenchColorado.org, who thinks four of the state's Supreme Court justices shouldn't be retained because of the way they've twisted the spirit of ... More >>

Westword pot humor makes it into Supreme Court filing in Stacy Clendenin medical marijuana case

Hope they've got a sense of humor.​At last -- a defense against readers who aren't wowed by Westword's marijuana jokes: An article filled with them is cited in a petition for Writ of Certiorari with the Colorado Supreme Court filed yesterday in the case of medical marijuana caregiver Stacy Cle ... More >>

Think you've got a right to court records? Think again...

​Over the past few years, the ability of journalists (or any private citizen, for that matter) to access various forms of public records in Colorado has been greatly diminished, from police reports to divorce filings. The loss of access to court records has been particularly aggravating, a bi ... More >>

DA Carol Chambers: Avoiding the inevitable

Carol Chambers. As Westword's Alan Prendergast has reported in a series of blogs, Arapahoe County District Judge Carlos Samour Jr. has ordered district attorney Carol Chambers to appoint a special prosecutor in the case of Julie Stene, who says she was sexually assaulted after a 2000 high school gr ... More >>

Wake-Up Call: Ward without end, and other long-running controversies

News is busting out all over today -- and not just in Denver District Judge Larry Naves's courtroom, where Ward Churchill may take the stand in his case against the University of Colorado, now starting week two. Or on the Auraria campus, where veteran newshounds of the Rocky Mountain News will un ... More >>

I'm Not Don Cheadle or Judy Collins, But Still...

Inmates Waitin' Around to Die

Only one man is on death row, but seven others are waiting in the wings.

Who's Sorry Now?

A look at the revolving door of term limits.

Holtzman Halts

Brownie to the Rescue

You look marvelous!

Tour de Farce

You'll have the crime of your life in the Mile High City.

Religious Rite

Denver's Christmas display could use a new coat of hay.

The Message

The Thong Show

The Eye of the Beholder

Defining the limits of obscenity.

Lunch Meet

Whose glass is half full?

An Ugly Picture

The Colorado Supreme Court gets involved in a child-pornography case.

Unhappy Returns

Understating the obvious about Columbine.

Here Comes the Judge

Letty Milstein takes her case to the state Supreme Court.

Guardian Anger

The state Supreme Court orders children's guardians to actually represent their clients.

A SWEET DEAL

NEED A TAX BREAK FOR THE NEW YEAR? CONSIDER RAISING BEES, DONKEYS, HAY OR, AS A LAST RESORT, A STINK WITH THE COUNTY ASSESSOR.TO BEE OR NOT TO BEE? FOR A SUCCESSFUL DEVELOPER SEEKING A TAX BREAK, THAT'S NO QUESTION. BUT TAXPAYERS GET STUNG.

WIN SOME, LOSE SOME

ADOPTING AN ATTITUDE

JUDGE DANA WAKEFIELD IS ACCUSED--AGAIN--OF STALLING ON THE STATE'S LAW FOR ADOPTEES.

THE CLIENT