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...
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...
Do you know who your district attorney is? Should you care?
“Why don’t I know who my DA is?” That is a question that a commentator in a recent Denver article spotlighting Colorado district attorneys and upcoming elections to select them says many state residents are now asking themselves. And Gordon McLaughlin stresses the...
Miranda rights: a bedrock yet complex criminal law safeguard
You’ve heard this before, right? In fact, it’s likely that most Coloradans who have spent any time at all over the years watching crime-linked movies and television shows have heard police officers utter the familiar refrain scores of times. It is kick-started with...
Not a felony, but a municipal crime charge can sting
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...
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,...
