The enforcement tools readily employed by Colorado law enforcers to identify and arrest alleged drunk drivers on state roadways are potent and multiple. And they are on display once again after taking just a brief time out following the recent Halloween weekend....
Month: November 2020
You might stand out in a crowd: Do you want to?
Colorado residents likely span a wide gamut when it comes to their reactions regarding personal snapshots taken of them that ultimately command broad attention. Stories sometimes feature that spotlight previously low-profile individuals suddenly emerging into public...
Pre-charge considerations: responding to initial police contacts
Many readers of criminal law blog posts might reasonably believe that Colorado law enforcers become active in a given case only after they have formally filed criminal charges. That is certainly what police officers and investigative teams want suspects to believe. It...
Pretrial risk assessment: Is it fair, and does it work?
Opinions differ. That is an eminently safe statement to make concerning pretrial risk assessment, a criminal justice tool employed to decide a fundamental issue concerning individuals charged with crimes who are awaiting trial. Assessment has a logical thrust and...
Promised CDOT/CSP holiday gift to select Colorado drivers: a DUI charge
First of all, let’s just clarify those acronyms in the above blog headline. They serve as abbreviated descriptors for the Colorado Department of Transportation and the Colorado State Patrol, respectively. You might have already known that if you’re a Colorado...
Colorado pot-legalization success instructive nationally
Marijuana legalization was once an outlier topic and even a taboo discussion item in states across the nation. When the subject did come up, naysayers often laced debate with harsh rhetoric citing perceived risks across a broad front. Critics claimed that stoned...
Lots of names, but one vast criminal law universe
Alleged online criminal behavior. Targeted computer-based offenses. Cyber crime. Are those … what? The same? Somehow different? Many Colorado residents who follow criminal law stories and legal updates might find those posed questions to be linked with an obvious...
Do recent CO election outcomes now promise material justice reforms?
“Folks want a new approach to criminal justice.” So says Gordon McLaughlin, a Colorado resident we referenced in a recent blog piece addressing upcoming elections focused on the slate of prosecutors operative across the state’s 22 judicial districts. The thrust of our...
Failure to look back: a fundamental flaw in sentencing reform
Imagine that you’re a Colorado resident with a loved one – a spouse, perhaps, or maybe a child – serving time behind bars following a criminal conviction. You have a problem with the specifics of the sentencing outcome, a reaction that is widely shared in the general...
Federal, state task forces notably busy recently with criminal probes
We noted a material and ongoing development in the criminal law sphere in a recent Shazam Kianpour & Associates blog post. The focus of our October 26 entry was on the expanded and aggressive nature of federally authored initiatives that principals say are...