People v. District Court in & for the City & County of Denver

QUINN, Chief Justice.

The People in this original proceeding seek relief in the nature of mandamus in connection with the respondent court’s refusal to impose a life sentence on the defendant, James Alvey Drake, for habitual criminality pursuant to section 16-13-101(2), of the Habitual Criminal Act, §§ 16-13-101 to -103, 8 C.R.S. (1985 Supp.). Because the jury returned a not guilty verdict to the principal charge of murder in the first degree but a guilty verdict to the lesser nonincluded felony of accessory to murder in the first degree, the respondent court concluded that section…