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...
Drug Possession
Why are Colorado felony charges disproportionately spiking?
“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...
Opinion piece crystal clear: change Colorado’s drug crime policies
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...
Regulators’ report underscores country’s opioid addiction problem
Cops know it. So too do judges and prosecutors. And knowledgeable and caring criminal defense attorneys are perhaps more attuned to the problem than all other participants in the country’s criminal justice system.The issue/challenge we’re referring to in today’s blog...
Time to move on: Boulder County pot-linked initiative welcomed
How would you feel as a Colorado resident convicted of a minor criminal marijuana-linked charge (say possession of a small amount of cannabis for personal use) in light of current state laws that now render that once-adjudged crime completely lawful behavior? Pretty...
Mental health expert: U.S. justice system is badly misguided
“More punishment for more people.”That outcome has sadly been the recipe in criminal law cases across America since the country’s inception, says one behavioral expert and justice system commentator who strongly urges reform.William R. Kelly is a sociology professor...
Colorado justice group calls for prison system/policy fixes
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...
Warrantless dog sniffs: Not a constitutional problem?
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...
Federal judge comes down hard on wrongful police action
Yes, they found heroin in the vehicle.And state and federal law enforcers also discovered something else subsequent to their drug seizure and arrest of a driver in Michigan, namely this: a pretextual traffic stop owing to a violation purposely caused by a police...
Report estimates wrongful conviction percentage among inmates
"I didn't do it."Those words and similarly voiced declarations of innocence are commonly delivered by individuals arrested on criminal charges or incarcerated following a conviction.And they are just as commonly disparaged by many people on the grounds that wrongdoers...