Kevin J. Beaty\/Denverite<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>Prosecutors say there are hundreds of defendants bumping up against \u2014 or beyond \u2014 that six-month deadline, which puts them at risk of having charges dropped altogether if they run beyond it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe view this as a significant public safety issue,\u201d Weir said. \u201cPeople are entitled to their day in court. They\u2019re entitled to have their case adjudicated by a jury of their peers. But justice should not be avoided by these circumstances that are beyond the control of anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Adams County alone, District Attorney Dave Young had 300 trials scheduled in the month of June that won\u2019t happen. In Jefferson County, District Attorney Pete Weir said he had 171 adult felony jury trials scheduled through the summer and another 512 trials scheduled for county courts.<\/p>\n
Weir and his 21 other district attorney colleagues across the state are urging lawmakers to swiftly pass legislation that adjusts the speedy trial requirements to account for the state\u2019s public health emergency.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe trials are stacking up,\u201d said Tom Raynes, head of the Colorado District Attorneys Council. \u201cWe\u2019re going to get bad results for public safety ultimately if something isn\u2019t done.\u201d<\/p>\n
At first, there was a lot of interest in fixing the problem on all sides. But it\u2019s grown into a hot potato in the state\u2019s criminal justice policy world, pitting victims advocates and the criminal defense bar against prosecutors and the Democratic attorney general, who has sought a legislative solution.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe would not support a really broad evisceration of the rights of the accused based on the pandemic,\u201d said Tristan Gorman, a criminal defense lawyer and lobbyist for the Colorado Criminal Defense Bar. \u201cParticularly not a permanent one that is going to remain memorialized in statute after the public health crisis is over.\u201d<\/p>\n
Defense lawyers point out there are a couple of other workarounds already in place that should suffice in keeping rights intact for both defendants and prosecutors seeking justice.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a part of the speedy trial statute that allows for extensions on cases where, for whatever reason, after a good-faith effort the prosecutor can\u2019t carry out the prosecution within the six-month timeframe.<\/p>\n
And there is also a recent rule, issued by the state\u2019s chief judge, allowing for lower judges to call mistrials due to the inability to impanel a jury because of the pandemic.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors worry, though, that a simple rule doesn\u2019t give full-proof protection against an appeal if the defendants\u2019 trials are pushed way beyond the six-month limits.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s good the state supreme court has done this because they\u2019re the ones who will ultimately hear the appeal in the state of Colorado,\u201d said Young. \u201cBut what\u2019s going to happen if it goes to the federal courts or the U.S. Supreme Court, for example. Obviously, under the current situation, we just can\u2019t bring people together to pick a jury.\u201d<\/p>\n
Plus, prosecutors point out that everyone dislikes mistrials \u2014 they\u2019re inefficient because both sides prepare for a court date, subpoena witnesses, get everyone ready and then they get to court and the judge discovers there are not enough jurors and it all gets postponed.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople don\u2019t realize how much time it takes to get a witness subpoenaed,\u201d Young said.<\/p>\n
The room at the Knights Inn in Aurora where Ally Starrett was murdered.<\/span>Kevin J. Beaty\/Denverite<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\u201cIt\u2019s important to recognize for victims, especially of violent crime, this is not a pleasant process that they want to go through or that they\u2019ve asked to go through,\u201d Tofte-Nestaval said. \u201cWhat happens over time is you have victims and survivors lose trust in the system.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said she wanted to work on other solutions to resume criminal proceedings safely, amid the pandemic. This could include, perhaps, jury trials on the Internet or voir dire to be conducted in, say, high school gymnasiums, where potential jurors could sit several chairs apart with masks.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe hope we can work collaboratively to really address these problems and do creative problem solving to keep these cases moving forward,\u201d she said. \u201cRather than indefinitely postponing them.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Starrett and the rest of murder victim Ally Raber\u2019s family, they will continue to wait \u2014 beyond the pandemic if they have to \u2014 for the trial.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you get into this kind of stuff, you can either get real angry,\u201d Starrett said. \u201cOr you can learn to have patience.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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