People v. Rodriguez-Nunez (Amicus)

The ACLU of Colorado joined ACLU Criminal Law Reform Project, Civil Rights Corps, Professors Kellen R. Funk and Sandra G. Mayson, and the Korey Wise Innocence Project in support of a petition for rehearing regarding the state constitutional right to bail.

The Colorado Constitution guarantees an absolute right to bail for people accused of crimes until disposition of charges, save for those accused of “capital offenses,” when proof is evident or the presumption is great. In 2020, Colorado abolished the death penalty. Mr. Rodrigez-Nunez is charged with one count of first-degree murder, for a homicide in 2021, when he was sixteen years old. At the time of the alleged crime, there was no exception to the state constitutional right to bail for first degree murder charges. The trial court set a bond of $5 million cash and expressed that it was intended to function as a no-bond hold, as the court knew Mr. Rodriguez-Nunez did not have $5 million to post.

The Court of Appeals held that the trial court erred by setting a cash bond it explicitly intended to function as a denial of bond, in violation of Mr. Rodriguez-Nunez’s constitutional right to bond and the statutory presumptions in favor of bond. The Court also held that monetary bonds have no unattainability requirements; in other words, the Colorado Constitution’s guarantee of the right to bail is satisfied by a bond, even if the bond is not one the defendant can pay.

The ACLU of Colorado joined Civil Rights Corp, Professors Kellen R. Funk and Sandra G. Mayson, and the Korey Wise Innocence Project as Amici Curiae, writing in a support of a petition for rehearing, requesting a modest revision of the opinion. Amici call the Court’s attention to the weight of national authority finding that unattainable money bond is the legal equivalent of a no-bond and ultimately ask the Colorado of Appeals to revise the section of its opinion deciding otherwise, because this case did not require the court to address this issue and therefore it was not fully briefed.