On June 13, Colorado’s Chief Parole Offer, Tim Hand, was fired after the murder of the state’s corrections chief Tom Clements. The chief suspect in the murder is parolee Spencer Ebel, a white supremacist gang member who was released from prison early due to a clerical error. Prison officials reported that at first, Ebel was a model parolee, reporting every day and remaining in the area. He even called in

An affirmative defense is essentially a legal justification for having committed a crime; that is, the defendant admits to having committed the crime, but raises a defense that if true would excuse him from criminal liability.  Once the defense raises sufficient evidence of an affirmative defense, it is up to the prosecution to disprove that affirmative defense, along with all of the charges, beyond a reasonable doubt.

 

Should

A case receiving significant media attention this week is the case of former Patriots’ player Aaron Hernandez, who now faces murder charges in the state of Massachusetts.  He is being held without bail.

 

While bail is possible on a charge of murder, it is unusual.  Mr. Hernandez’ attorney advocated for a bail being set, arguing that Mr. Hernandez had a clean record, was a resident of the county in

Previously, law enforcement needed to obtain a warrant prior to acquiring call location information.  A recently passed bill changes that, although only for emergency situations.

 

In order to thus obtain such information without a warrant, there must be probable cause to believe that an emergency situation exists such that an individual faces risk of death or serious bodily injury, and the time to request a warrant would increase that

It is well established law that the police cannot legally stop your vehicle without reasonable suspicion.  Where matters become a little less clear is the law that holds that once the purpose of the initial stop of a defendant’s vehicle has been accomplished, and no other reasonable suspicion exists to support further investigation, any ongoing detention of the defendant and his vehicle is illegal.  A recently decided Colorado Supreme Court,