After almost 7 days, the Alabama hostage standoff is over. It has been confirmed that the hostage taker, Jimmy Lee Dykes, had died and that the 5 year old hostage was alive and well.
Had Mr. Dykes been taken alive he would have faced multiple felony criminal charges including murder, kidnapping, menacing, and false imprisonment. There is a very good chance that he would have served the rest of his life in prison.
Aggressive DUI Representation
The Denver DUI lawyers at M. Trent Trani & Associates, P.C. offer aggressive and experienced representation for driving under the influence and driving while ability impaired charges in Denver and all other Colorado jurisdictions. Contact one of our DUI lawyers at (303) 333-1816 for a free consultation! We look forward to speaking with you.
A 69 year old Canadian man was recently charged with his 17th DUI offense! The man was caught driving drunk after stopping at a liquor store at 8:30 in the morning. He was at the liquor store to pick up a case of beer. The employees at the store tried to convince the man that he was too drunk to drive. The employees contacted police when the man ignored their advice and got into his car and drove away from the store. The man was last charged with DUI in 2005. He had his license suspended for 5 years at that time.
While we are not sure what will happen to the man under the applicable Canadian laws, but we are sure that he is lucky that he did not do this in Colorado. The mandatory jail statutes in Colorado would definitely put this man in jail for a long period of time. Denver and all other Colorado jurisdictions are very strict on drinking and driving offenses.
M. Trent Trani & Associates, P.C. is Denver, Colorado’s premier criminal defense law firm. Our criminal lawyers provide experienced and aggressive representation to clients charged with all felony and misdemeanor matters in all Colorado jurisdictions. Contact us now for a free consulation at (303) 333-1816. Our offices are located at 44 Cook Street #100 Denver, CO 80206.
The criminal attorneys at M. Trent Trani & Associates, P.C. believe that they, as well as all other criminal lawyers in Denver, play an essential role in our criminal justice system.
The following is part one of a series describing the role that criminal defense attorneys play in our society an
Being a criminal defense attorney in Denver, Colorado today presents many challenges and difficulties not required of defense lawyers of the past. These challenges and difficulties increase the importance of the role of the criminal lawyer.
What are the obligations and responsibilities faced by the criminal defense lawyer in today’s legal climate?
1. Protecting the rights of the accused. The number one obligation of today’s criminal attorney is protecting the rights of the accused. Those rights come from the Bill of Rights as set forth in the U.S. Constitution. These generally include the right to be treated fairly by our criminal justice system.
Specifically, they include the right to a trial by a jury of their peers, the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty by “proof beyond a reasonable doubt”, the right to a speedy and public trial, the right to remain silent, the right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures, and, maybe most important, the right to effective assistance of legal counsel. Each of these rights, guaranteed by the United States Contitution and its Bill of Rights, has been made applicable to all states, including Colorado, through the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and various United States Supreme Court case opinions.
Effective assistance of counsel means that a criminal defense attorney has the obligation to provide his or her clients, the accused, protection against government overreach. The criminal lawyer does this by challenging government conduct that violates the rights listed above (as well as those not listed). A criminal defense attorney who fails to make reasonable efforts to do this for his or her clients does not provide effective assistance of counsel and thereby fails in his or her basic responsibility.
Part II will be published at a later date…. stay tuned
Happy St. Patrick’s Day to everyone! Just a reminder of the dangers of drinking and driving in Denver on this holiday. A DUI in Denver is a very serious matter. However, the results of a Denver DUI can be much more serious if there is an accident involved.
The Denver DUI Lawyers at M. Trent Trani & Associates, P.C. provide aggressive and specialized DUI defense in Denver and all other Colorado jurisdictions. If you happen to be arrested and charged with a DUI or DWAI in Denver, please call us for a free consultation. (303) 333-1816.
The following video on what can happen with a DUI that results in an accident is a powerful reminder NOT to drink and drive in Denver or anywhere.
M. Trent Trani & Associates, P.C., Denver, Colorado’s premier criminal defense law firm, provides representation to clients charged with robbery, fraud, aggravated robbery, theft, burglary, assault, and all other felony and misdemeanor matters, in Denver and all other Colorado jurisdictions. If you are in need of an aggressive, experienced, and compassionate criminal attorney, please call us for a FREE Consultation. 303.333.1816.
After buying his new Apple Ipad last year, a Denver man had his pinky finger mangled so badly as another man robbed him at the Cherry Creek Shopping Center that he had to have it amputated. Immediately, Denver police began searching for the suspect in this aggravated robbery and assault case. It was just reported by the Denver Post that the suspect in this alleged aggravated assault and robbery case has been arrested. The suspect, Brandan Darnell Smith, was arrested by Denver police during a routine traffic stop at 1 a.m.
Mr. Smith will most likely regret resorting to aggravated robbery to get the sought after Apple Ipad as his alleged crimes carry a potential consequence of a mandatory 10-32 years in the Colorado Department of Corrections on the aggravated assault charge and another mandatory 5-16 years on the aggravated assault charge. One has to wonder what, if anything, someone thinks when committing crimes such as these. It is one thing to commit the crime of theft in Denver or another Colorado county as it does not carry nearly as severe consequences. But when one actually commits robbery and seriously injures the victim of that robbery in the process, they have committed two very serious criminal offenses. The criminal offenses of aggravated robbery and aggravated assault on no laughing matter; and certainly not worth an Apple Ipad!
While the criminal defense attorneys at M. Trent Trani & Associates, P.C. never condone any criminal behavior, especially a robbery or assault where someone is actually injured, we do provide aggressive criminal defense for such offenses. Where we have a client who has admitted to guilt to such an offense, our goal is always to mitigate the consequences and provide our client appropriate counseling when needed to avoid future misconduct.
The criminal defense lawyers at M. Trent Trani & Associates, P.C. have done more to help clients in this regard than most Denver criminal attorneys and are very proud of this. Our lawyers believe that, in this regard, we offer a valuable service to the Denver community as it reduces the chances of client recidivism.
Where we have a client who is falsely accused of committing aggravated robbery or assault, and this does happen more than most people think, our criminal defense attorneys offer zealous and aggressive representation and attempt to do everything that we can to shed light on the truth. This is done through aggressive investigation and legal research. Ultimately, a case like this may end up going to a jury trial for the truth to be revealed.
Please call our Denver criminal defense attorneys now for a Free Consultation at 303.333.1816.
M. Trent Trani & Associates, P.C., Denver, Colorado’s Premier criminal defense law firm, represents clients charged with all felony and misdemeanor criminal matters, in all Colorado jurisdictions. Call the Denver criminal defense attorneys that care at 303.333.1816 for a Free Consultation.
Article published with permission.
An interesting study was reported in the New York Times discussing the difference between being represented by a public defender as opposed to being represented by a retained attorney in a criminal case. The study was conducted by two economists for Emory University. The study concluded that in serious cases “the average sentence for clients of public defenders was almost THREE YEARS longer than the average for clients of private attorneys.” Moreover, when all cases were considered, the average sentence for clients of public defenders was almost FIVE YEARS longer than the average for clients of private attorneys.
The January 8, 2007 New York Times Report is set forth in full:
SIXTEEN years as a state trial judge have left me with a deep respect for the professionalism and competence of the public defenders who handle felony cases for indigent criminal defendants in my courtroom. In fact, I’ve told friends, only half-jokingly, that if they are ever charged with a serious criminal offense, the first thing they should do is give all their assets to charity, in an effort to qualify for public defender representation.
So when two economists from Emory University, Paul Rubin and Joanna Shepherd, agreed last year to collaborate with me on an econometric study of how effective public defenders really are, I had to guard against confirmation bias. I was positive that public defenders would prove more effective than their private counterparts. Mr. Rubin and Ms. Shepherd, with their occupational faith in markets, were equally positive of just the opposite. In the end, the economists were right, though with an interesting twist. (The full study has been published in the Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law.)
We looked at all 5,224 felony criminal cases filed in Denver in 2002. Most other studies measure lawyer effectiveness through indicators like acquittal rates, but we used the one thing criminal defendants care about most: the amount of jail or prison time they receive. Thus, acquittals counted as zero. Probationary sentences likewise counted as zero, unless the probation was combined with some jail time. We counted halfway-house sentences as 120 days, which is typical for Denver defendants. We counted the initial length of a prison sentence without decreasing it for early release or increasing it for parole violations. Life sentences we arbitrarily counted as 110 years.
My economist friends were able to use regression analyses to control for other variables (such as whether a case was plea bargained or went to trial), to minimize the chance that the differences we found were caused by factors other than effectiveness. They also used regressions with different combinations of variables, to ensure that our results were not sensitive to a particular variable.
The results were surprising. The average sentence for clients of public defenders was almost three years longer than the average for clients of private lawyers.
But our most notable finding was hidden in one of the variables we had controlled — the seriousness of the case. We had assumed that public defenders on average handled more serious cases than private lawyers, if for no other reason than that such cases carry higher bonds, and defendants who can’t make those bonds are often rendered indigent by their pretrial incarceration. The length of their clients’ sentences would of course be distorted by the fact that they handle more serious cases with longer potential sentences.
But when we removed the control for the seriousness of the crime, public defenders performed relatively worse, not better (five years more incarceration versus three years more).
When we examined the seriousness of the cases handled by each type of lawyer, we discovered not only that private lawyers tend to handle more serious cases, but also that as the seriousness of the case increases, the chances that a private lawyer is handling it also increases. What in the world could explain such a result?
It turns out that the explanation, at least in part, is one that should put a smile on the face of all free-marketers and rational choice theorists: criminal defendants, just like any other consumers of services, appear to be making choices based on their rational assessments of costs and benefits. But, you might ask, do criminal defendants ever really have a choice between public defenders and private counsel? It appears many do.
Our data suggested that, contrary to the law’s rather binary notion of indigency, a large chunk of felony criminal defendants are what we have called “marginally indigent.” They could, if they had to, tap hidden resources, or the resources of family and friends, to retain private lawyers. But what drives that decision? Just what you’d expect from any rational consumer of criminal defense services: a combination of the seriousness of the offense and the likelihood of conviction.
Imagine a guilty, marginally indigent defendant facing a relatively minor felony (for which he will most likely get probation). Now add to the mix the fact that his crime was captured on videotape, meaning he has a small chance of avoiding conviction. It is unlikely such a defendant would deplete his and his family’s and friends’ resources to hire a private lawyer when he could get a free public defender to achieve the same result.
At the other end of the spectrum, imagine a marginally indigent defendant charged with first degree murder, and imagine that he is innocent. Wouldn’t that defendant do everything in his power to marshal the resources to hire a private lawyer, if he believed, rightly or wrongly, that the private lawyer were more likely to achieve an acquittal?
In other words, marginally indigent defendants who choose public defenders tend to be guilty. And of course if that’s true, it’s not at all surprising that public defenders would achieve less favorable outcomes.
More work needs to be done to confirm these results. But if they hold, and hold nationally, they could have important policy implications. Roughly one-third of all states have formal statewide public defender systems, and several others have regional or local systems. Current debates about improving these systems tend to revolve around two poles: increased financing (for which public defenders have been clamoring since the 1980s, when per client spending in most systems, in real dollars, took a nose dive from which it has never recovered) and, more recently, privatization.
If it is true that public defenders achieve substantially worse results for their clients than private lawyers, that fact should be troubling to us all, quite apart from whether the difference is the product of underfinancing, government inefficiencies or both.
But our results suggest a more benign explanation, and a less drastic solution than spending more on public defenders or privatizing the system. If self-selection by guilty, marginally indigent defendants is driving a big part of this effectiveness difference, the remedy may simply be to tighten the mechanisms we use to determine indigency. This solution would not only reduce the outcome differences between public defenders and private defense lawyers, but it would also give taxpayers more bang for their public defender buck.
M. Trent Trani & Associates, P.C., Denver, Colorado’s premier criminal defense law firm. Our Denver criminal lawyers provide representation to clients charged with all felonies and misdemeanors including Colorado sex offenses, including sex assault on a child, internet luring and exploitation of a child, indecent exposure, and rape, in all Colorado jurisdictions. FREE Consultation. 303.333.1816 or Toll Free 1.855.MyCrimL (692-7465).
Arrest Warrant? Need help finding a reputable Denver bail bondsman?
If you have an active arrest warrant, please contact the Denver criminal defense attorneys at M. Trent Trani & Associates, P.C. Our lawyers work with only the most reputable and knowledgeable professional bail bondsman in Denver and throughout Colorado.
Taking care of a warrant for your arrest can be a complex and confusing process. If you are unable to post the entire amount of the bond with cash, or are unable to put up real property in lieu of a cash bond, you will have to use a Denver professional who specializes in bail bonds. How does that work? The Denver bondsman collects a fee from you, usually 10-15% of the total bail bond amount, and then posts the entire amount of the bond with the Colorado courts. The Denver bail bondsman keeps that fee as his payment, and you are then free to go home. In some situations, it is possible to actually post a bail bond and resolve the outstanding arrest warrant without actually being taken into custody. For this reason, it is essential that you work with only the best professional Denver bail bondsman. The Denver criminal defense attorneys at M. Trent Trani & Associates, P.C. can facilitate this process. Please call one of our Denver criminal lawyers at 303.333.1816 for a FREE Consultation. Or visit us on the web for more information at TraniLaw.com
The Denver Post is reporting today that a large sports betting operation is under investigation for professional gambling, a criminal offense in Denver and all other Colorado counties.
Some individuals using the gambling operation had weekly spending tabs of up to $50,000. Owners of Charlie Brown’s, a bar in downtown Denver, Blake Street Tavern, and the Sports Column have been linked to the criminal gambling operation.
Gambling for an individual is a petty offense in Denver under Colorado law. However, professional gambling can be charged as a misdemeanor or felony criminal offense.
The Denver criminal attorneys at M. Trent Trani & Associates, P.C. provide aggressive criminal defense representation for gambling and all other felony and misdemeanor criminal offenses. If you have been accused of, or charged with, any criminal offense in Denver or any other Colorado county, please contact our criminal lawyers for a Free Consultation. 303.333.1816 or Toll Free 1.855.MyCrimL.
You can also visit our website for more information. Tranilaw.com
The following article was authored by M. Trent Trani in 2010 and originally published on his former firm’s blog site.
M. Trent Trani & Associates, P.C., Denver, Colorado’s Premier criminal law firm, represents clients charged with all felony and misdemeanor criminal matters, in all Colorado jurisdictions. Call the Denver criminal defense law firm that cares at 303.333.1816 for a Free Consultation.
The criminal defense attorneys at M. Trent Trani & Associates, P.C. believe that they, as well as all attorneys in the Denver, Colorado criminal defense bar, play an essential role in our system of criminal justice. The following article is part one of a series describing the role that criminal defense attorneys play in our society and the challenges faced by those who choose this difficult profession.
Being a criminal defense attorney in Denver, Colorado today presents many challenges and difficulties not required of defense attorneys of the past. These challenges and difficulties increase the importance of the role of the criminal defense attorney in Denver and throughout the state of Colorado. What are the obligations and responsibilities faced by the criminal defense attorney in today’s legal climate?
1. Protecting the rights of the accused. The number one obligation of today’s criminal defense attorney is protecting the rights of the accused. Those rights come from the Bill of Rights as set forth in the U.S. Constitution. These generally include the right to be treated fairly by our criminal justice system. Specifically, they include the right to a trial by a jury of their peers, the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty by “proof beyond a reasonable doubt”, the right to a speedy and public trial, the right to remain silent, the right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures, and, maybe most important, the right to effective assistance of legal counsel. Each of these rights, guaranteed by the United States Contitution and its Bill of Rights, has been made applicable to all states, including Colorado, through the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and various United States Supreme Court case opinions. Effective assistance of counsel means that a criminal defense attorney has the obligation to provide his or her clients, the accused, protection against government overreach. The criminal defense attorney does this by challenging government conduct that violates the rights listed above (as well as those not listed). A criminal defense attorney who fails to make reasonable efforts to do this for his or her clients does not provide effective assistance of counsel and thereby fails in his or her basic responsibility.
2. Defending the innocent. It is true that a large number of the criminal defense attorney’s clients have some level of criminal culpability. In other words, most of the lawyer’s clients are guilty. How the criminal defense lawyer addresses those clients is addressed below. But what is the criminal defense attorney’s responsibility when he or she has a client who is innocent?
There are some in our society who do not believe that the government, generally by and through a prosecuting agent of a city, district or U.S. attorney’s office, prosecute people who are actually innocent. Unfortunately, a quick google search for “wrongly convicted” produces a litany of cases where people convicted of crimes are later proven to be innocent. A 2005 U.S. Today article titled “Report: thousands wrongly convicted each year” addresses the issue directly. In Colorado, we have to look no further than the Larimer County case of People of the State of Colorado vs. Timothy Masters.
The Timothy Masters case is a gross example of the damage that government overreach can cause an individual, as well as an entire community. After a 12 year investigation that began when Mr. Masters was just 15 years old, he was convicted of 1999 the murder of Peggy Hendrick in Ft. Collins, Colorado. Mr. Masters was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Unfortunately, Mr. Masters’ conviction was obtained by Larimer County prosecutors without any physical evidence and with the assistance of questionable investigation techniques utilized by local law enforcement led by Detective Jim Broderick. In addition to the questionable methods used by Detective Broderick, it has now become clear that the prosecution withheld evidence from Mr. Masters’ criminal defense attorneys and that legitimate alternative suspects were not only not investigated, but were clearly ignored by investigators and the prosecution. In 2004, Mr. Masters successfully appealed on the basis of ineffective representation by his criminal defense team. He was appointed a new team of criminal defense lawyers who began to investigate the case. In early 2008, DNA testing conducted by a team of experts in the Netherlands retained by his new defense lawyers proved that Mr. Masters was actually innocent of the murder. Shortly thereafter, a Court vacated his conviction and dismissed the case against him. Unfortunately for Mr. Masters, government overreach, in the form of overzealous investigators and prosecutors bent on a conviction and career achievement, cost Mr. Masters 10 years of his life.
The repercussions of this case have been great. The city of Fort Collins and Larimer County settled a civil suit with Mr. Masters for $10 million. The funds to pay for this settlement are to be paid for from city and county funds; ultimately money funded by the tax payers. On June 30, 2010, the Denver Post reported that a grand jury has indicted Detective Jim Broderick of criminal perjury charges. In September of 2008, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that the prosecutors in the case, Jolene Blair and Terrence Gilmore, now both Larimer County District Court judges, should be publicly censored for their failure to ensure that evidence was properly provided to Mr. Masters’ defense attorneys and for failing to seek evidence from police investigators that would have cast doubt as to Mr. Masters’ guilt. While such a consequence may seem minor, a public censure is a serious consequence for ethics violations of licensed attorneys in Colorado and is fairly rare.
Ultimately, the point of the Tim Masters case is that innocent people can be accused and convicted of criminal offenses and that, sometimes, such convictions can have a serious impacts that can affect not only the person who is falsely accused, but the community in which it happens. To prevent this type of situation, criminal defense attorneys must take seriously the role of ensuring proper police and prosecutor conduct at every stage of every case that they handle.
So what is the responsibility of the criminal defense attorney in Colorado when representing an innocent client? In addition to upholding the client’s constitutional rights and conducting oversight on the conduct of police and prosecutors, it is to conduct an independent investigation in an attempt to prove the client’s innocence prior to trial and to thoroughly research every legal possibility of establishing the client’s innocence to a jury at trial. When this proves to be impossible, the responsibility of the criminal defense attorney shifts to establishing reasonable doubt as to the prosecutor’s case against the client.
3. Defending the guilty. As stated above, it is true that the majority of criminal defense clients are indeed guilty. Because of this, a common question asked of criminal defense lawyers is “how can you do that job?” It is true that providing assistance to individuals who have committed often serious criminal offenses is not for everyone because of the ethical and moral ideals that many people possess. With that said, it takes a special person to be a criminal defense attorney. Why?
Criminal defense attorneys have the same obligations to guilty clients as those discussed earlier in the article pertaining to innocent clients. The attorney must provide effective assistance of counsel, make sure that the government fairly investigates and prosecutes, and must defend the rights guaranteed to all by the U.S. Consititution. An attorney who is unable to do this will never be able to successfully practice criminal defense law. Attorneys who are able to do this generally have a stong belief in the adversarial nature of our criminal justice system and that every person, no matter what crime they are accused of, is entitled to representation.
Generally speaking there are two categories of guilty clients that the criminal defense attorney represents. The ones that deny criminal culpability and those who take responsibility for their actions.
The most difficult client for the criminal defense attorney to represent is the client who clearly has at least some criminal responsibility for what he or she is accused of. If the client is not taking responsibility, even when confronted by their attorney with strong evidence of guilt, the defense attorney must handle the case as he or she would with a client who they believed to be innocent. In other words, the criminal defense attorney must try to establish as much evidence as is possible suggesting that the client is innocent or establish enough questions in the prosecutor’s case to convince a jury that there is reasonable doubt as to the client’s guilt. It is here that most people, and even some practicing criminal defense attorneys, run into some serious ethical and moral dilemmas. It is here that the criminal defense profession obtains the bad reputation with many in our society. Why? Because it is in these cases where a criminal defense attorney who excels in trial practice techniques can often obtain “not guilty” verdicts even when the evidence strongly suggests otherwise. While each practicing criminal defense lawyer must deal with their own individual feelings that may result from such outcomes, they must ultimately rely on the notion that had the police and/or the prosecution properly done their jobs, the client would have been properly convicted and secondly, that our system of criminal justice requires that some who are guilty must go free to ensure that those who are innocent are not wrongfully convicted.
The second category of guilty clients that criminal defense attorneys represent are those that, in many cases, give the attorney the most satisfaction with their chosen profession. It is here that the criminal defense lawyer can have the most positive impact on society. When a guilty client is taking responsibility for their actions, the criminal defense lawyer can often have a positive impact on the life of the client and their loved ones. This generally occurs by helping the client obtain help with personal issues to address the root of criminal behavior and to reduce the chance of recividism.
The most obvious example of this is in the situation where a client has been charged with possession of a controlled substance, i.e., an illegal drug. In most such cases, the client has been caught possessing the substance because he or she has a serious addiction. If the attorney can talk to the client about the addiction and how the addiction is affecting the client’s life or the life of the client’s family, the attorney can often convince the client that he or she can change their life and that obtaining drug treatment will be beneficial. Another example can be in cases where domestic violence treatment or anger management treatment can address serious issues that a client has that is not only causing criminal behavior, but is ruining relationships, families, or future opportunities. There are too many such examples to all be discussed here. Being able to offer such assistance to clients can have positive effects that are often life changing. In this capacity, the criminal defense attorney can not only help a client avoid serious legal consequences, but also have a real impact on that client’s life. Most often, much more so than any prosecutor, judge or probation officer.
Additionally, directing a client in a positive direction can often help the client avoid the potential serious consequences of the criminal justice system. When a prosecutor sees that a client is not only taking responsibility for their actions, but also obtaining some sort of help to help reduce the chances of recividism, that prosecutor is generally more likely to offer the client a less severe legal consequence in the form of a plea bargain. When a judge sees this same, that judge is more likely to sentence that client to a less severe form of punishment than that which would be otherwise be imposed.
In summary, the criminal defense attorney has an essential role in our nation’s system of criminal justice. Without the availability of effective legal representation for those accused of crimes under our federal, state, and municipal statutes, the potential for damaging government overreach would be great. It is those attorneys who practice criminal law as their chosen profession who protect all of us from this threat and make our criminal justice system the best that the world has to offer.
Why is there a need for Criminal Defense Lawyers? A Dallas, Texas man was freed after spending 14 years in prison for a sex assault on a child criminal offense… after being declared innocent. While our system of criminal justice is the best in the world, it is not perfect. Criminal defense attorneys play an essential role in ensuring that the system minimizes situations such as this.
The Denver criminal defense lawyers at M. Trent Trani & Associates, P.C. aggressively defend those charged with sex assault on a child criminal offenses in Denver and all other Colorado jurisdicitions. If you are accused of this criminal offense, whether guilty or innocent, it is essential that you have a Denver criminal defense attorney who specializes in sex assault crimes defense.
Please call us for a Free Consultation at 303.333.1816 or Toll Free at 1.855.MyCrimL.
You can also visit our website at www.tranilaw.com
