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10 15 24 KOA legal analyst Scott Robinson on Colo Amendment I Remove Right to Bail
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The Roku Channel, your home for free and premium TV is giving you access to holiday music and genre based stations from iHeart all for free. Find the soundtrack of the season with channels like iHeartChristmas and North Pole Radio. The Roku Channel is available on all Roku devices, web, Amazon Fire TV, Google TV, Samsung TVs and the Roku mobile app on iOS and Android devices. So stream what you love and turn up the cheer with iHeartRadio on the Roku Channel. Happy streaming! We'll hear from Rocky Mountain Gun owners at 749 this morning but first Bell it's now arriving in mailboxes across the state and voters will have the opportunity to decide on a plethora of ballot initiatives, measures and amendments. One of those measures posed to voters seeking to address a hold over from a 2020 change in law which abolished the death penalty in Colorado which prevents judges from denying bail to those charged with first degree murder. Joining is now to talk about a longtime Denver attorney and KOA legal analyst at Scott Robinson Scott. Glad to have you on Colorado's morning news. Just from the gist of this measure how it's written, do you have a feeling one way or the other about it from your perch? Well it's ironic my feeling is that it uses the same archaic language that has been used in the Colorado Constitution quite frankly for over a century. It's been part of the long Colorado and many other states. The concept of the proof evidence and the presumption is great. What exactly does that mean? Well it's more than a proponent of the evidence but less than beyond a reasonable doubt. And the reality is that this is one of those amendments to our Constitution that's proposed amendment I, it goes to Article II, Section 19, the right to bail in the Colorado Constitution. It probably doesn't matter. Why doesn't it matter? It doesn't matter because judges are setting first degree murder bonds in amounts of $5 million, $8 million, $16 million bonds that almost no one can make. But it would be a resumption of the law as it was in Colorado for decades and decades and decades, absolutely from the initiation of our state. So Scott if it did pass how often do you think an amendment I would be used? Do you think judges would just continue to set those crazy high bales and just decide to not do that no bail option? Well the way it works is this, individual arrested for first-degree murder will stay in jail until they, what we call the preliminary hearing which is combined with what we call a proof evidence presumption great hearing. And at that hearing if the evidence doesn't show that the proof is evident or the presumption great that the individual committed first-degree murder, the judge will set bond. Historically that does not happen in many murder cases although I've had two individuals who were charged the first-degree murder who were released on bond because after the prelim I convinced the judges in those two cases that the two individuals involved had valid self-defense defenses and as a consequence they were released on bail and ultimately acquitted. So it was not impossible to meet the proof evidence presumption great standard. My only issue with it is that it's, that's still to the archaic language that very few judges in fact I don't know anybody who actually knows what it means except that it's greater than preponderance of the evidence and the lesser than proof beyond a reasonable doubt. So this is one of those constitutional amendments that may not matter just because people aren't getting out on bonds for first-degree murder cases anyway. Scott is a law-abiding citizen and way out of my depth when it comes to the legal ease and you've explained it well why should I as just a regular citizen why should I care about a measure or a ballot measure like this? Of all of the measures on the ballot I'm not sure if this is the least significant for the reason that I just explained. Folks are not getting out on first-degree murder bonds because there's a historic and quite frankly a public safety reason why that might be a good idea to not let such people out on bond but the reality is that people charged with first-degree murder are not all is convicted of first-degree murder and as a consequence of people who don't make bond or may be being given a bit of a disservice in fact a huge disservice because their liberty has been curtailed and they sit in jail waiting for a trial and was there ultimately exonerated or found guilty of a lesser charge such as second-degree murder or manslaughter. Be that as a may what this measure does it does restore the law to the place it was prior to June 20th 2023 when our Colorado Supreme Court ruled that the phrase capital cases only means cases that led to the death penalties. You pointed out that was voted out in 2020 and by the way the Smith decision by the Colorado Supreme Court was unanimous all seven justices ruled that the people charged with first-degree murder who were not facing a death penalty which is now anyone after 2020 would be eligible for bonds but again as I point out judges say the bonds in astronomical amounts so it's almost the same there's no bond at all. Scott if passed how would this go into effect would it start impacting cases currently would it look at past cases with those with those astronomical bonds could they be switched to a Nobel option what would the legality of all this be? Well I think people with the high bonds that would it would it would it depends on the effective date the actual measure that we see on the ballot doesn't tell us that I believe it would be pretty much effective upon passage would it affect cases between June 2023 and November 4th of this year perhaps but since I know of no presentation which somebody charged the first-degree murder was admitted to bail anyway if not a situation where someone was free on bond and then suddenly had to go back into jail I judge any judge would be hesitant to do that if the individual has been completely lawful why they've been out on bond Denver attorney KOA legal analyst Scott Robinson thank you you bet you take care guys hey it's Ryan Seacrest life comes at you fast which is why it's important to find some time to relax a little you time enter Chumba casino with no download required you can jump on anytime anywhere for the chance to redeem some serious prizes so treat yourself with Chumba casino and play over a hundred online casino style games all for free go to Chumba casino dot com to collect your free welcome bonus sponsored by Chumba casino no purchase necessary VGW group void where prohibited by law 18 plus terms and conditions apply if you put aside 25 cents every week for a year what could you get at the end a few cups of coffee maybe a candle or you could get a year of the best reporting from all over the world go to washingtonpost.com/bf24 right now you'll get a Washington Post subscription for 25 cents a week for your first year this is a black Friday sale so it won't last long Washington Post dot com slash bf24 it's beginning to sound a lot like the holidays the Roku channel your home for free and premium TV is giving you access to holiday music and genre based stations from iHeart all for free find the soundtrack of the season with channels like iHeartChristmas and North Pole radio the Roku channel is available on all Roku devices web Amazon fire TV Google TV Samsung TVs and the Roku mobile app on iOS and Android devices so stream what you love and turn up the cheer with iHeartRadio on the Roku channel happy streaming