Alvarez v. District Ct. in & for City & Cty. of Denver

Pursuant to C.A.R. 21, petitioners in this original proceeding seek a writ prohibiting the respondent district court from proceeding further against them under an information charging, inter alia, murder in the first degree (felony-murder) in violation of 1971 Perm. Supp., C.R.S. 1963, 40-3-102(l)(b). We issued a rule to show cause why such relief should not be granted. We now make the rule absolute.

At issue is whether the Colorado felony-murder statute applies to the perpetrators of a felony where a nonparticipant is mistakenly killed by another nonparticipant in the course of the felonious…