Lima-Marin’s co-defendant seeking a reduced sentence
Michael Clifton has filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus that he hopes could free him from the 98-year prison sentence he continues to serve while his original co-defendant, Rene Lima-Marin, now lives free after a sentencing error and unusual four-year legal fight ended just two weeks ago.
Clifton, the original co-defendant with Lima-Marin in two 1998 Aurora video store robberies, received the same 98-year sentence for a string of charges and currently serves time at the Sterling Correctional Facility. Although he had the same sentencing error on his paperwork, it was caught and corrected when he appealed his conviction.
Lima-Marin did not appeal, and his error wasn’t discovered until years later, after he’d served eight years as a model prisoner, completed parole and was living a productive life as a glass installer, husband and father. When prosecutors corrected the error and sent him back to prison, he filed a petition on the grounds that his re-incarceration amounted to cruel and unusual punishment.
Arapahoe County District Court Judge Carlos Samour Jr., in a 165-page opinion, ordered him released, calling his re-incarceration “utterly unjust.” But an immigration issue resulted in his continued detention. Gov. John Hickenlooper granted him a pardon to erase his felony conviction in an effort to avoid deportation, but immigration authorities persisted and Lima-Marin served several more months in custody until he finally prevailed and won his release.
Adam Frank, Clifton’s attorney, filed the petition in Arapahoe County District Court on Monday. He said his client should not be subject to his current sentence when Lima-Marin won freedom, even though it came through an administrative mistake.
“Mr. Clifton’s petition is about equal protection, Michael the fundamental Clifton idea that equal
protection is equal treatment for all people in the same situation,” Frank said. “In no world is it fair that Mr. Lima-Marin’s sentence has been terminated and Mr. Clifton is in prison for rest of his life.”
The petition names the Colorado Department of Corrections as respondent. The state attorney general’s office, which would handle the legal proceedings for the DOC, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Shortly after Lima-Marin won his case for release in district court, Clifton, now 39, voiced his frustration. He didn’t begrudge his childhood friend his good fortune, but felt that neither of them deserved a 98-year sentence for their crimes.
“I’m not asking to be immediately released,” Clifton told The Denver Post last June. “But I’m asking: Shouldn’t we address the excessive sentence for me? Am I not deserving? Can I not redeem myself ?”
Frank noted that Clifton has served almost 20 years in prison at this point — “about the sentence he would expect to get” if the case were tried today.
“There is no world in which a young man who robbed two video stores should be sent to prison for life,” he said. “This is an opportunity to correct that injustice, and Mr. Clifton is praying the court will.”
Arapahoe County District Attorney George Brauchler, who was not involved in the original prosecution, has criticized Hickenlooper’s pardon — he called it unconstitutional — and said Clifton’s current legal approach was “entirely predictable” given the governor’s actions.
“At the 30,000-foot level, this is a legitimate argument to make,” Brauchler said of the petition, while not conceding that it will prevail. “If you look at these people side by side, one guy is out on a mistake and free, not even a convicted felon anymore, which has restored his right to get a gun again. Another guy, unless something is done by the court or the governor, will probably die in prison.
“I’m not surprised at all,” Brauchler added. “The only thing that surprises me is he didn’t go to the governor directly.”
At the time Hickenlooper pardoned Lima-Marin, he dismissed the idea of clemency for Clifton, citing a prison stabbing incident.
“That’s not rehabilitating your life in the way that we’re talking,” the governor said at the time.
But Clifton has held that he had a much harsher prison experience than Lima-Marin and had to fight for his survival.
“I’d like to have a perfect prison record,” Clifton said, “but circumstances didn’t allow it. Maybe I wasn’t mature enough, or had to go through my own journey. But to hold that against me, that I shouldn’t get any relief because of my prison record, is hard for me to accept.”
The bizarre circumstances surrounding the case presented an opportunity that attorney Frank said he simply couldn’t pass up when Clifton’s family reached out to him.
“There are certain injustices that, when you see them and you’re a civil rights lawyer, you’ve got to take that on,” he said. “Nobody has been involved in a case like this.”