DENVER - A federal judge is expected to rule next week in a battle about what you can and can't say on the steps of Denver's district courthouse.
In the last month, two men were arrested and charged with jury tampering for handing out pamphlets near the entrance of the Lindsey-Flanigan Courthouse, where Denver felony trials occur.
Eric Brandt and Mark Iannicelli's pamphlets were promoting jury nullification, a practice in which jurors refuse to convict someone who committed a crime because they don't think the underlying law is fair.
Civil rights attorney David Lane filed a lawsuit on the behalf of other jury nullification advocates, saying their actions at the courthouse should be protected as free speech. Lane says it's against the First Amendment to prevent people from sharing their opinions in front of a public courthouse.
"This is no different than any repressive regime anywhere in the world," Lane said. "When you put out a message your government doesn't want to hear and you go to jail as a result, that is not a free country."
Days after the arrests, Denver's Chief District Judge issued an order banning all demonstrations in a buffer zone near the entrance of the courthouse. It is now forbidden to pass out materials, picket, march, protest or hold vigils in that 10,000-square-foot area.
In a federal court hearing Friday, Denver district court administrators said the buffer zone was created as an important safety measure due to a death penalty trial that's in progress. They said they worried about the possibility of large-scale demonstrations if Dexter Lewis receives a death sentence in the Fero's Bar murder case. The jury's decision could come within weeks, but there is no mention of the Lewis case or an expiration date on the judge's order creating the buffer zone.
Lane has asked the federal judge to issue an injunction forbidding more arrests of people who are passing out pamphlets or otherwise exercising their First Amendment rights at the courthouse.
(© 2015 KUSA)
