Drug Possession

Colorado criminal law analysts and commentators know just as well as their peers across the country what approaches work and what strategies are failing in the justice system.And they keep shining the spotlight on a particular sentencing outcome that has come in for...

“Something is going on and I don’t think any of us have the answer.”That is the admittedly unsure response of Colorado criminal justice advocate Christie Donner as to why felony charges being filed by prosecutors are spiking across the state.There is no question that...

It was “an expensive and hurtful fable.”And let’s not mince words about it, adds Colorado’s Sentinel magazine in a recent editorial piece that heavily criticizes America’s so-called War on Drugs. That policy initiative has been the decades-long mantlepiece guiding...

The uppercase depiction of longstanding American criminal law policies imbues them with a sense of fervor and unquestioned harshness. The War on Crime. Its attendant War on Drugs.Those notably tagged battles have seemingly been a near-crusade in states across the...

Here is a case from outside Colorado that we submit is broadly relevant from a criminal law perspective. We note below its essential details for our readers.The story starts with a sniffing dog in a Minneapolis apartment hallway, with that canine’s alerting outside a...

A recent Denver Post article’s reference to “poor judgment, impulsiveness, lack of inhibitions, short temper and inability to solve problems” might reasonably link in many people’s minds to descriptors of individuals embroiled in the criminal justice system.It is in...

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper's office announced the issuance of pardons to 17 criminally convicted offenders last week.A central question being presently entertained by many commentators on the justice system is this: How many more pardons might be in the works...

We all know the overriding strategy long employed in the so-called War on Crime against criminal suspects. Namely, what that has meant in Colorado and nationally is a slammed door in a state or federal penitentiary for a convicted offender. Unquestionably, a go-to and...

Many news followers in Colorado and nationally are regularly bombarded with articles featuring all manner of story lines. Given the sheer number and diversity of competing news bits, it is course quite often the case that readers quickly scan over some stories with...

It's one thing when flawed calculations lead to a lost poker hand or a bit of incorrect tallying in a check book.And it's quite another when they wrongly deny a locked-up human being years of freedom to which he or she is entitled.Apparently, number crunchers and...