(Aspect I: ODD Regulations IN COLORADO)
In courtroom dramas on Television or in the motion pictures, you can find generally a scene where a witness, even soon after swearing on a stack of Bibles and his lifeless mother’s grave that he will convey to the truth of the matter, the total reality and almost nothing but the fact, takes the witness stand and then suggests one thing which is not genuine.

On-display screen, one of the attorneys leaps to their toes, points their finger at the witness, and shouts for the entire courtroom to hear:
“LIAR!”
In the Condition of Colorado, nonetheless, this can never ever happen – there are no “lies” or “liars” in Colorado courts.
In Colorado, as the Colorado Supreme Courtroom wrote in the situation of Crider v. People, 186 P.3d 39, 41 (Colo. 2008), “it is incorrect for a law firm to use any form of the term ‘lie’ in characterizing for a jury a witness’s testimony or his truthfulness.”
That specific term is banned “for a amount of good reasons. It is prohibited not only due to the fact it poses a threat of speaking the lawyer’s own opinion about the veracity of a witness and implying that the attorney is privy to facts not right before the jury, but also merely for the reason that the term ‘lie’ is an inflammatory expression, likely (no matter if or not basically created) to evoke strong and negative emotional reactions towards the witness.”
As far back again as in 1981, the Colorado Supreme Court docket has claimed, as they did in the case of Hughes v. Point out, 437 A. 2d 559, 571 (Colo. 1981), “In our feeling, ‘liar’ is an epithet to be applied sparingly in argument to the jury. It is a flashboard far more most likely to produce heat in a contentious courtroom than it is to illuminate the research for reality. […] We say this since a witness or a social gathering may perhaps be mistaken, uninformed, or erroneous in his info or conclusions in a lot of methods, and nonetheless not be a liar labeling a witness as a ‘liar’ or to argue that he has ‘lied’ is to say something very distinctive about his testimony.”
“Some words and phrases or analogies by their very character resonate additional powerfully in the coronary heart and minds of the jury,” the Colorado Supreme Courtroom wrote in the situation of Domingo-Gomez v. Men and women, 125 P.3d 1043 1050 (Colo. 2005). These kinds of terms “evoke potent reactions in jurors and just take them down the path toward a conviction wherever the evidence does not essentially guide. The term ‘lie’ is such a strong expression that it essentially displays the particular impression of the speaker. When spoken by the State’s agent in the courtroom, the term ‘lie’ has the hazardous probable of swaying the jury from their duty to establish the accused’s guilt or innocence on the proof adequately introduced at trial.”
In other phrases, if a attorney calls something a “lie,” it is this sort of a stunning curse that a jury may possibly not be equipped to get about it, and may well convict an usually innocent man or woman, just due to the fact they come to feel so strongly about “liars.”
Consequently, no lawyer is allowed to at any time use any variation of the phrase “lie” in Colorado courtrooms.
Though odd laws are entertaining to read through about, we know that when you happen to be sitting down in the courtroom, it is rarely entertaining or entertaining. The skilled felony defense group at The Regulation Workplaces of Steven Rodemer is below to support you navigate the criminal justice procedure and be certain your legal rights are secured through the method. Speak to us today to make certain you get the skilled lawful representation you ought to have.