Years ago when Tom Carberry worked as a public defender, he did many dozens of felony trials.  But now that Tom Carberry is in private practice, he does about one trial each year.  Tom Carberry has not lost a felony trial since about 2004. Here are all of the felony trials Tom Carberry has done since 2007.

People v. John Curren, Adams County case number 97CR3075 – two counts of first-degree murder.  Mr. Curren’s case appears under Tom Carberry’s 35(c) wins tab, his appellate wins tab, and finally under this trial wins tab.  In 1997, the Adams County district attorney charged Mr. Curren and four other men with a double murder. Mr. Curren hired well-known defense lawyer Harvey Steinberg.  The first trial lasted 3 days and the jury convicted him of two counts of first-degree murder.  The trial court imposed two life sentences without parole.  Mr. Curren lost his appeal, but Tom Carberry and Patrick Mulligan got his convictions vacated in a 35(c) hearing.  On April 18, 2011, the re-trial in Mr. Curren’s case started.  It lasted 10 days. Tom Carberry and Mark Burton defended Mr. Curren at trial.  The jury acquitted Mr. Curren of both first-degree murder counts and found him guilty of accessory after the fact.  The judge sentenced him to 12 years in prison, the maximum for that charge.  Although he had served more than 10 years in prison, the Department of Corrections refused to give him earned time, despite a statute requiring them to give earned time to all persons convicted of a class 4 felony.  This has greatly harmed Mr. Curren because with earned time, he would have completed his prison sentence and parole, because he has served 10 actual years incarcerated.  The DOC did this because they think of themselves above the law and wanted to punish him more because of his prior murder convictions.  Power people in the criminal law often behave pettily like this.  On August 9, 2011, Mr. Curren got transferred to community corrections after a vote by the Denver Community Corrections Board.

People v. Francisco Selman, Arapahoe County case number 03CR606. Mr. Selman originally was convicted of second-degree murder and got 32-years in prison.  Tom Carberry represented him on appeal and got the conviction reversed.  Tom Carberry represented Mr. Selman in the second trial in November 2009.   After two days of deliberation the jury returned a verdict of manslaughter and the trial court granted a personal recognizance bond.  Later the court sentenced him to the maximum sentence allowed – 6 years in prison.  Mr. Selman went to prison for about two weeks and they released him on parole because of the time he served after the first trial.  Tom Carberry has his case on appeal and believes he will win.

People v. Christopher Rimpson, Arapahoe County case number 07CR878.  The prosecution charged Mr. Rimpson with sexual assault on a child in a position of trust, habitual offender, and habitual sex offender for a previous conviction for attempted sexual assault on a child.  Tom Carberry represented him at a jury trial in October 2008.  After about an hour of deliberations, the jury found Mr. Rimpson not guilty on all charges.

People v. Shareef Aleem, Adams County case number 05CR384, The prosecution charged Mr. Aleem with second-degree assault on a police officer based on a videotaped incident at a Board of Regents meeting over whether to fire Professor Ward Churchill for his essay on 9/12/2001 arguing that the United States should have expected blowback from all of its imperialist wars against the rest of the world.  [DISCLAIMER:  Tom Carberry and a team of other attorneys represent Professor Churchill on appeal].  Mr. Aleem and most of the audience had come in support of Professor Churchill.  At some point, the regents sent the campus police up into the balconies to arrest the only, or one of the only, black men in the audience, Shareef Aleem.  He went to trial originally with a different lawyer, but the jury hung 11 to 1 for conviction.  Tom Carberry and Mark Burton represented Mr. Aleem pro bono publico at his second trial.  ”Pro bono” means we did it for free.  The jury found him not guilty.  If the jury had found him guilty, he would have faced a minimum of 4 years in prison, and up to 12 years in prison.