Weird Colorado Laws – There Are No Liars in Colorado Courts – The Law Offices of Steven Rodemer, Colorado Springs

(Element I: ODD Legislation IN COLORADO)

In courtroom dramas on Television or in the films, you will find usually a scene exactly where a witness, even just after swearing on a stack of Bibles and his lifeless mother’s grave that he will convey to the real truth, the full reality and nothing but the truth of the matter, usually takes the witness stand and then claims some thing which is not correct.

On-screen, a person of the lawyers leaps to their toes, details their finger at the witness, and shouts for the whole courtroom to listen to:

“LIAR!”

In the Condition of Colorado, nevertheless, this can by no means occur – there are no “lies” or “liars” in Colorado courts.

In Colorado, as the Colorado Supreme Court wrote in the circumstance of Crider v. Individuals, 186 P.3d 39, 41 (Colo. 2008), “it is inappropriate for a lawyer to use any variety of the term ‘lie’ in characterizing for a jury a witness’s testimony or his truthfulness.”

That unique word is banned “for a quantity of good reasons. It is prohibited not only because it poses a chance of communicating the lawyer’s personal feeling about the veracity of a witness and implying that the attorney is privy to details not right before the jury, but also just due to the fact the term ‘lie’ is an inflammatory phrase, most likely (no matter if or not basically developed) to evoke sturdy and destructive psychological reactions towards the witness.”

As significantly again as in 1981, the Colorado Supreme Court docket has claimed, as they did in the case of Hughes v. Condition, 437 A. 2d 559, 571 (Colo. 1981), “In our impression, ‘liar’ is an epithet to be used sparingly in argument to the jury. It is a flashboard a lot more very likely to create heat in a contentious courtroom than it is to illuminate the search for reality. […] We say this since a witness or a social gathering might be mistaken, uninformed, or erroneous in his specifics or conclusions in many ways, and still not be a liar labeling a witness as a ‘liar’ or to argue that he has ‘lied’ is to say one thing really various about his testimony.”

“Some text or analogies by their incredibly nature resonate much more powerfully in the coronary heart and minds of the jury,” the Colorado Supreme Court docket wrote in the situation of Domingo-Gomez v. People, 125 P.3d 1043 1050 (Colo. 2005). Such terms “evoke powerful reactions in jurors and just take them down the route toward a conviction where the proof does not necessarily guide. The phrase ‘lie’ is these a solid expression that it essentially reflects the particular viewpoint of the speaker. When spoken by the State’s consultant in the courtroom, the term ‘lie’ has the perilous potential of swaying the jury from their obligation to determine the accused’s guilt or innocence on the proof adequately introduced at trial.”

In other text, if a law firm calls a little something a “lie,” it is such a surprising curse that a jury may perhaps not be ready to get around it, and could possibly convict an in any other case harmless particular person, just simply because they feel so strongly about “liars.”

As a result, no attorney is allowed to at any time use any variation of the word “lie” in Colorado courtrooms.

Even though odd laws are entertaining to examine about, we know that when you are sitting down in the courtroom, it is almost never enjoyable or entertaining. The experienced criminal defense group at The Regulation Places of work of Steven Rodemer is listed here to aid you navigate the prison justice method and make certain your legal rights are protected in the course of the approach. Get in touch with us today to make sure you get the specialist legal illustration you are entitled to.