Chism v. People

Percy Chism petitioned this court pursuant to C.A.R. 21 for relief from the trial court’s determination that he was not eligible for probation. Although the prosecution initially recommended waiver of the statutory prohibition against granting probation to defendants with two prior felony convictions, the trial court found that the prohibition could not be waived for defendants like Chism, with a prior violent felony conviction. We issued a rule to show cause. Because the trial court misconstrued the statutory scheme to bar any waiver in Chism’s case, we now make the rule absolute.

I

On April…