Following last week’s 6-3 tariff-case decision, the president’s disparagement of Supreme Court justices has drawn criticism, including from some of his own allies. Conventional wisdom suggests it is perilous to personally insult judges.
But there are exceptions.
This strategy once helped a Colorado death row inmate avoid execution. Beyond that, I’ve witnessed a Colorado chief executive who savaged three jurists and expressed profound regret for having appointed them.
On Nov. 14, 1984, 54‑year‑old bookkeeper Lorraine Martelli was carjacked at 5th and Broadway in Denver by habitual criminal Frank Rodriguez, age 28. Ms. Martelli was kidnapped, brutalized, robbed and raped and eventually murdered near Mile High Stadium. Rodriguez stabbed her 28 times as she prayed the rosary while stuffed in the trunk of her stolen Chevy Monte Carlo.
Rodriguez shouldn’t have been free. Denver District Court Judge Harold Reed imposed an absurdly soft sentence for a prior kidnapping and sexual assault. At Rodriguez’s death penalty sentencing phase, the jury heard all about that prior case from the late 1970s and Reed’s leniency. On Dec. 17, 1986, a 12-member Denver jury returned a unanimous verdict of death.
I got to know Judge Reed personally soon after the Rodriguez case. I was Denver’s Chief Deputy District Attorney in Courtroom 16, and my double-shooting case was moved next door to Courtroom 17. The trial stretched into a second week because Reed limited our court hours and favored the defense lawyer, who had been his clerk.
After I won convictions anyway, Reed was upset and sent a letter to my boss, Denver DA Norm Early, accusing me of overkill and wasting court time.
Norm called me to his office, started laughing and tore up Reed’s letter after we read it. On the fourth floor of the City and County Building, I personally confronted Reed, telling him how his letter was wrong.
In July 1988, Gov. Roy Romer promoted Reed to the Colorado Court of Appeals, where all my convictions began facing extra scrutiny and occasional reversals.
Simultaneously, in the seemingly endless Rodriguez case, a serious post-trial insult campaign was directed at outstanding Denver District Court Judge Connie Peterson. After we obtained the death verdict in her courtroom, Rodriguez’s public defenders decided their best remaining tactic was to villainize Peterson. And me.
Denver public defenders, who had never lost a capital case before, publicly described an “atmosphere of hate” in her courtroom and claimed Peterson became so frustrated with constant objections during my penalty-phase closing that she told defense counsel to “shut up and sit down, and let Mr. Silverman finish his argument.”
Peterson never told anyone to shut up. The Denver newspapers and TV stations would have reported it immediately. Peterson firmly denied it. The official transcript supported her claim. Rodriguez’s lawyers then argued that the court reporter tampered with the record.
Justifiably furious, Peterson filed a grievance with the Colorado Supreme Court, accusing the defense of dishonesty.
As a result, Peterson felt the need to recuse herself. The case was then passed from judge to judge for several years. As a result, Rodriguez died in 2002, not by execution, but from liver disease on death row, with his last federal appeal pending. In the end, over-the-top insults of Peterson succeeded where legal arguments had failed.
Watching the Rodriguez case delays was former Gov. Dick Lamm. Back in the mid-1980s, fellow Chief Deputy DA Bill Ritter and I advised Lamm against Colorado adopting sentencing guidelines similar to Minnesota. Lamm agreed with us and killed the legislation.
Once a death-penalty opponent, Lamm became a passionate proponent as he watched the Rodriguez saga and Colorado’s violent crime problems. Lamm asked me to help write a Denver Post op-ed explaining his new stance. In it, Lamm severely criticized Rodriguez’s defense team for a deliberate strategy “to delay and stall whenever possible.”
In his March 13, 1994, editorial “Judiciary Has Sabotaged the State’s Death Penalty,” Lamm castigated his Denver District Court appointee, Harold Reed, for giving Rodriguez an “extraordinarily lenient single‑digit term.”
Lamm also reproached Supreme Court Justices George Lohr and Howard Kirshbaum for voting against the Rodriguez death penalty, proclaiming he regretted appointing all three, accusing them of pursuing “their own anti‑death‑penalty agenda” over upholding the Constitution, and urging voters to remove them.
Rodriguez’s appellate team unsuccessfully attempted to have Rodriguez’s death penalty overturned due to the collaboration between Lamm and me. The Colorado Supreme Court determined that Lamm (and I) had every right to express ourselves, as I later did in The Sun, when I decided that capital punishment is too risky now.
Wise lawyers build good relationships with the judiciary. Judges tend to gossip among themselves because they often can’t speak freely with others. Try to stay on the good side of humans who wear black robes.
However, that robe shouldn’t shield judges from justified criticism. Admonishing the judiciary is sometimes necessary.
Would those condemning presidential insults toward the judiciary want to be restricted in our criticisms of justices Kavanaugh, Alito and Thomas? No, thank you. Judges are not above criticism, but be careful. You may be judged harshly someday.
Craig Silverman is a former Denver chief deputy DA. Craig is columnist at large for The Colorado Sun and an active Colorado trial lawyer with Craig Silverman Law, LLC.
The Colorado Sun is a nonpartisan news organization, and the opinions of columnists and editorial writers do not reflect the opinions of the newsroom. Read our ethics policy for more on The Sun’s opinion policy. Learn how to submit a column. Reach the opinion editor at opinion@coloradosun.com.
Follow Colorado Sun Opinion on Facebook.
Hence then, the article about silverman judges aren t above criticism but sometimes it can pay off was published today ( ) and is available on Colorado Sun ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Silverman: Judges aren’t above criticism, but sometimes it can pay off )
Also on site :
- ‘Bridgerton’ Star Yerin Ha Reveals the One Prop She Couldn’t Resist Taking Home (Exclusive)
- Sam Altman tells staff at an all-hands that OpenAI is negotiating a deal with the Pentagon, after Trump orders the end of Anthropic contracts
- Trump administration charges 30 more people for Minnesota church protest