If you read our blog posts chronicling criminal law stories and developments relevant to Colorado, you likely harbor no illusions concerning the uniform stance of state officials toward alleged drug-crime activities and their zero-sum insistence upon aggressively prosecuting and seeking harsh sentencing outcomes for offenders.
Indeed, although Colorado is widely perceived across much of the country as being an ultra-liberal enclave for drug-related activities, that is actually far from being the case. And many people find that out the hard way.
We candidly state on our Denver criminal defense website that it is “absolutely the recommendation of Shazam Kianpour & Associates that a person charged with drug possession or distribution should seriously consider hiring a qualified drug defense lawyer.”
The reasons why are myriad.
Here’s one of them, which was spotlighted in glaring fashion by national news outlets focused on recent developments in Massachusetts.
A judge in a state court there had the singular experience last week of receiving individual responses from a retinue of county prosecutors from across the state that collectively dismissed low-level drug crime convictions in more than 21,000 cases.
And, yes, you read that number correctly. The dismissals have been termed “epic” and perhaps stand as being unparalleled in the county’s history.
Notably, they owe to this single cause: the purposeful manufacturing and promotion of false forensic evidence authored by one former forensic laboratory chemist whose motives still reportedly remain “somewhat of a mystery.”
That such a thing could happen anywhere in the county is likely stunning and flatly horrifying to many people, especially considering the dire consequences that resulted for a high number of innocent and wrongly charged individuals.
Faulty evidence is but one of many points of concern in a criminal case.
It is a big one, though, and it certainly underscores the urgency and importance of our above-delivered recommendation for any drug-crimes defendant to securely timely, knowledgeable and aggressive legal representation from proven legal counsel.