Colorado v. Griffin
Annotate this Case
The Supreme Court granted the State's petition for writ of certiorari to review the court of appeals' decision to vacate Carey Griffin's conviction for failure to register as a sex offender. After the Court granted certiorari review, Griffin died. Griffin's counsel filed a notice of death and moved to dismiss. The State appealed, arguing that the proceedings should have abated ab initio. The Supreme Court issued an order granting the motion to dismiss but later vacated that order to allow the State to respond to the motion. Griffin's counsel argued that the doctrine of abatement ab initio applied here because Griffin died while his case was pending on direct appellate review of his conviction. The State argued Griffin's appeal should have been resolved despite his death because the State had an interest in obtaining resolution of the court of appeals' interpretation of the sex offender registration laws and this issue was likely to evade future review. The State also noted that other courts have questioned the continuing validity of the abatement ab initio doctrine in light of other interests, including the rights of crime victims. Consistent with cases from the United States Supreme Court and other jurisdictions, the Colorado Court declined to apply the doctrine of abatement ab initio to matters pending on certiorari review. In light of Griffin's death, the Court vacated its order granting the writ of certiorari and dismissed the State's petition, but did not abate the proceedings ab initio.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.