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...
Drug Possession
How busy will Colorado Gov. Hickenlooper get with pardons?
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...
Spotlight on Denver Police Department’s inaccurate crime data
The Denver Police Department is no different from peer organizations across the country in wanting to be as accurate as possible regarding crime reporting and classification. As a recent Denver Post article duly notes, "Inaccurate or false crime data can damage a...
Colorado’s diversion programs scoring high marks, Part 2
One Denver police lieutenant says that select individuals who accompany him when he responds to 911 calls "are worth their weight in gold." He may be right, even in the most literal sense. The people riding shotgun with him and other police officers when they...
Timely, proactive and proven: Colorado’s diversion programs
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...
A legitimate search-and-seizure query in many criminal law cases
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...
A train not stopping: call for criminal law reforms gains steam
Many of our readers in Denver and across Colorado certainly note -- and likely criticize -- the constant bickering that our national lawmakers routinely engage in on Capitol Hill, and the resulting inaction that follows in its steady wake.There are exceptions to the...
Report: faulty parole dates for thousands of Colorado prisoners
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...
Nation’s Attorney General addresses bad-faith police behavior
There is no question -- and certainly no media outlet arguing otherwise -- that current U.S. Attorney General is anything other than a law-and-order type of guy.That is, Sessions' on-the-record comments, recently issued memos, strident calls for a return to harsher...
Is a federal marijuana crackdown coming in Colorado?
What many people don’t realize is that even though the recreational use of marijuana is legal under Colorado law, it is still very much illegal under federal law. However, while the federal government could seek to prosecute many recreational marijuana users in...