Update, 2:40 p.m.: Earlier today, Judge Richard Caschette issued a ruling denying District Attorney George Brauchler’s motion to delay the murder trial of Edward Montour Jr. or to bar testimony from eleven defense expert witnesses. That sets the stage for opening statements in the death-penalty case to begin on Tuesday…
On a frozen Wednesday evening last month, hundreds of residents of Denver’s west side squeezed their way into an open house held at a former yeshiva on Quitman Street, just a short walk from a new light-rail station. Cold cuts and cheese plates were available, but most of the visitors…
In an unprecedented move, the El Paso County Coroner’s Office has amended the death certificate in the 1997 death of a twelve-week-old infant, changing the cause of death from “homicide” to “undetermined” — dealing yet another blow to prosecution efforts to seek the death penalty for the infant’s father, Edward…
Last month, Rick Raemisch, executive director of the Colorado Department of Corrections, decided to get a taste of his own medicine. He cuffed up and shuffled in leg shackles to an administrative segregation cell, bereft of TV or books. Sitting in solitary, listening to the noise from other cells, soon…
Under the newly re-gilted Capitol dome, lawmakers are debating budget cuts and trying to wrestle pork into and out of familiar barrels. It’s unlikely, though, that any of them are losing sleep over one burning issue that’s been a source of constant grumbling in places like Ordway, Sterling, and Buena…
Two days a week, Bob Autobee has been outside the Douglas County courthouse with his signs, protesting the lack of justice in the criminal justice system. Yesterday, he was invited inside, to explain to Judge Richard Caschette why he should be allowed to tell the jury in the long-delayed trial…
State lawmakers are pondering a bipartisan proposal today that would help fund the track maintenance and upgrades that Amtrak says it needs to keep running its Southwest Chief route through southern Colorado. The railroad wants approximately $40 million a piece from Kansas, Colorado and New Mexico over the next decade…
The long, troubled effort to execute Edward Montour Jr. for the 2002 murder of Limon prison guard Eric Autobee, a prosecution already under fire from Autobee’s parents, who oppose the death penalty for their son’s killer, just got more complicated. A defense motion filed Monday morning contends that Montour was…
A new study on the health risks of fracking has found an increased risk of birth defects — including a startling 30 percent hike in the risk of congenital heart defects — among families living near oil and gas wells in rural Colorado. The report has been embraced by environmental…
Bob Autobee doesn’t want to see the man who murdered his son Eric twelve years ago put to death for his crime. Eighteenth Judicial District Attorney George Brauchler wants to prevent Autobee from sharing his views on the death penalty and the justice system with the jury that will decide…
Like Bronco hype and stories about Bieber Behaving Badly, you can count on a regular supply of reports in the press dealing with how criminals continue to scam the system even while behind bars. The latest installment appeared over the weekend in the Denver Post, a tut-tutter lamenting that inmate…
Richard Toler saw the big black dog and knew something was wrong. It was half past ten in the morning on January 5, 2005, the thermometer just a few degrees above zero, and a Newfoundland named Bear was cruising the neighborhood. No way that dog should be loose, particularly in…
An e-mail written by an outspoken sociology professor at Colorado State University-Pueblo, comparing job cuts at the school to the deadly Ludlow Massacre, has prompted university officials to cut off his access to the school’s computer system and accuse him of violating a campus communication policy that prohibit messages intended…
This morning’s Denver Post had just one word for Peyton Manning’s peerless performance in Sunday’s AFC championship victory over the New England Patriots: SUPERB! Actually, the paper’s worshipful scribes had lots of words about the game and the Broncos QB, but SUPERB! just about summed it up. It’s a slightly…
The irascible and irrepressible Jack McCroskey passed away last week. The scant details in the Denver Post report and his online obit don’t even provide his age, which had to be at least 88, and nothing of the acerbic wit and passionate citizen activism that propelled him into public office…
The national debate over fracking may be unfolding in the halls of Congress, but the battle over where oil and gas drilling takes place is being waged at the grassroots level — which is why the liberal advocacy group MoveOn.org has announced plans to funnel money, training and “strategic support”…
With only one execution logged in the past 45 years, Colorado’s death penalty is practically on life support itself — and about to be severely tested by three high-profile cases in coming months. Yet the man who might, in effect, pull the plug on the practice in our state isn’t…
The Colorado Department of Corrections may have miscalculated the sentences of thousands of state inmates, hiking prison costs by millions of dollars and keeping offenders incarcerated beyond the time they were expected to serve, according to a federal lawsuit filed on behalf of four DOC clients — one of whom…
The Colorado Court of Appeals has rejected efforts by a group of park lovers to stop construction of a new school on eleven acres of open space in the Cherry Creek corridor — land that the city designated as a natural area six years ago but that the Hancock administration…
When it comes to getting top dollar for the taxpayer from energy and mineral resources on public lands, the federal government’s approach is a lot like that of the morbidly obese relative you see scarfing down a third helping of pumpkin pie at Christmas. Every year there’s a promise to…
Denver Parks and Recreation officials have been in high reverse gear in response to mounting neighborhood opposition to the proposed City Loop project in City Park, the subject of last week’s feature, “Parks and Wreck.” After critics raised a barrage of concerns about City Loop’s cost, public input process, and…
President Barack Obama recently commuted the sentences of eight federal prisoners serving absurdly long sentences for crack cocaine convictions, noting that such harsh punishments couldn’t be imposed under current sentencing schemes. But Colorado’s recent governors have been reluctant to exercise their own clemency powers, even when doing so could save…
