The Appellate Unit handles a wide variety of matters for the Office.

Some of the main functions are as follows:

Supreme Court/Court of Appeals—

We handle all appeals taken by this office (18th Judicial) such as interlocutory appeals (where evidence has been suppressed) and Rule 21 Petitions (appeals to the Supreme Court on questions of law on pending cases). The Colorado Attorney General responds to all appeals where the defendant is challenging his conviction.

County Court Appeals—

We handle all appeals made on behalf of the District Attorney (in the 18th Judicial) and defend all appeals brought by the defendant.
Motor Vehicle Appeals—We deal with a number of appeals taken by the defendant challenging the revocation of his driving privileges by a hearing officer. We also appear on hearings where a request is made for a stay of the revocation

Research Projects—

We do research for all attorneys who have questions on points of law. This may involve preparing motions, responding to defense motions, preparing memos of law or merely providing case law on a legal issue.

Extraditions—

We review cases to decide whether we want to extradite a defendant from another jurisdiction. Those decisions are based on the charges, strength of the proof, costs to extradite as well as other factors. If we decide to extradite and the defendant refuses to waive extradition, we start the Application for Requisition for a Governor’s Warrant to compel extradition.

Civil Discovery—We review all requests for discovery of our files. The review consists of whether the request involves a pending case (which means we probably will deny discovery) and if we provide discovery, which documents should be produced.

Sex Registration Hearings—

We respond to and appear at hearings where a petitioner is seeking to end his requirement to register as a sex offender.

Sealing of Records—

We review all petitions to see whether they are eligible to have criminal records sealed. We respond to those petitions stating whether we have an objection or not. We appear in court and argue against the sealing if we have an objection.

Miscellaneous—

We also handle petitions for out of state witnesses, fugitive of justice filings (where another state wants a defendant), detainer cases (where a defendant is in prison in Colorado, another state or federal prison but has untried charges here), some post conviction hearings (primarily murder cases), federal and Immigration and Naturalization (INS) writs as well as other matters.

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