What’s the big deal? That is the question that legions of Colorado residents might logically pose to themselves in the wake of being cited for a so-called “municipal” crime. Here’s why: Such an infraction sits in stark contrast to a felony charge, which links to...
Month: September 2020
Continued look at a key nemesis driving wrongful convictions
Today’s blog post continues its scrutiny of matter introduced in a recent entry. Namely, that is the troubling issue of wrongful criminal convictions that occur with distressing frequency across the country. We noted that scourge in our September 21 blog offering,...
Troubling presence of official misconduct in wrongful conviction cases
The criminal justice realm in Colorado and nationally will always comprise top-tier subject matter when it is spotlighted in conversation or a news piece. And that is logically so, because virtually everything about it is of an ultra-serious nature. The outcomes of...
Internet crime: a vast and varied universe
Many readers of this blog might regard a reference to the term “universe” to be entirely reasonable in any discussion focused on the Internet. It certainly incorporates the elements we might commonly think of, doesn’t it? It is huge beyond comprehension. Experts...
Sometimes murky: Was it self-defense or assault?
It’s not always immediately clear. That is a safely couched threshold answer to the above-posed headline query leading off today’s blog post. Indeed, a self-defense-or-assault determination can often be a challenging and difficult call to make for law enforcers and...
A sex crime charge is never a trivial matter in Colorado
Are there differences in outcome following a conviction of rape versus one relevant to indecent exposure in Colorado? Of course there are, with the consequences in any criminal case being materially varied dependent on the charges filed, public perception of alleged...
Sorting through the acronyms: Colorado’s varied drunk driving charges
Were you driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs while behind the wheel or simply impaired? Many Colorado motorists might reasonably scratch their heads over that distinction. And they might be left even more muddled by how state law enforcers make a...
Recurring and penalty-laden: end-of-summer DUI campaign
Groundhog Day. Déjà vu. Intimate familiarity. We’ve done this before, right? Colorado motorists collectively experience varied emotions when it comes to a heightened police presence on roadways spanning the state, of course. Anyone who has ever suffered a speeding...
How unpaid tickets can spiral out of control.
Most people have put off paying an expense, bill or parking ticket at some point in their lives. However, when it comes to Colorado traffic violations, an unpaid ticket can quickly turn into a much more serious problem. Sometimes, individuals may shirk a ticket...
A “simple” Colorado traffic stop can be instructive
The quoted word in today’s blog headline posed above might reasonably give Colorado readers of our criminal law posts at Shazam Kianpour & Associates a solid indication of where this post is headed. Which is toward nuance and complexity, because few...