A judge in Arapahoe County today denied a defense request for a new trial for death row inmate Sir Mario Owens.
In his ruling today, Senior Judge Christopher Munch concluded that Owens’ attorneys in the original trial represented him adequately. Also in question was whether information prosecutors did not disclose to the defense attorneys tainted the trial. Judge Munch ruled that it did not. He also ruled that a juror who later said she recognized several witnesses who testified during the case did not commit misconduct.
Munch said that while Owens is entitled to a fair trial, he’s not entitled to a perfect trial. “Owens was convicted of three murders tried in two separate cases.
Owens was found him guilty of murdering Gregory Vann in Aurora’s Lowry Park in 2004 and also of trying to kill Vann’s friend Javad Marshall-Fields.
In 2005, Marshall-Fields who had been scheduled to testify against another man in the Lowry Park case was murdered along with his fiancée, Vivian Wolfe.
Owens was convicted for those murders and he was sentenced to death. The appeal of that death penalty case is still pending.
The ACLU of Colorado today filed discrimination charges with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on behalf of two female flight attendants, employees of the Denver based Frontier Airlines.
They allege that the company has discriminated against them and other female flight attendants by failing to provide accommodations related to pregnancy and breastfeeding.
The attendants who have worked for the airline for 13 years and 11 years respectively assert that despite their desire to return to work, they were forced onto unpaid leave after having their babies.
They also say that there were no accommodations made for them that would allow them to pump breast milk and they say they were forbidden from pumping while on duty.
A flight attendant’s shift is typically 10 hours long with back to back flights.
The charges claim that Frontier Airlines have work policies that penalize pregnancy-related illness and absences.
Immigrant rights advocates are criticizing Aurora City Council for voting against adopting sanctuary city status at its meeting last night. Aurora city council members voted 6-4 last night in declaring that the city is not a sanctuary city. The resolution was first discussed at a special session on March 27th where the council met to discuss sanctuary policy. But critics say that community members, immigrant rights advocates and immigration law experts were excluded from that meeting.
Aurora has one of the most diverse populations in the state with 1 in 5 residents born outside the US.
