WESTERN SKIES - May 21, 2005

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ERIC WHITNEY: Anyone who has watched a television crime drama probably knows the famous Miranda warning, beginning with the right to remain silent. Last week, the Colorado Supreme Court weighed in on the issue of Miranda rights, Stephen Raher has more.

STEPHEN RAHER: In October of 2002, police in Greeley saw a van in a bar parking lot, that they thought might be linked to a kidnapping and rape that took place the night before. An officer questioned the men in the van, called for backup, and confiscated the keys to the vehicle.

Over the next two hours, officers separated the men, made them wait outside the van in thirty-degree weather, and questioned them repeatedly. One of the men, Juan Pascual spoke no English, and could only speak Spanish at a sixth grade level. His native language was Kanjobal, a Guatemalan dialect. Despite the language barrier, Pascual was interrogated for seven and a half hours, during which he made several incriminating statements.

At trial, the district court judge in Greeley did not allow Pascual's statements to be admitted, saying he hadn't been given a sufficient Miranda warning. Prosecutors appealed to the Supreme Court, and on Monday, a four justice majority agreed with the trial court, saying that once additional officers were called to the parking lot, Pascual was effectively in police custody, and he should have been advised of his rights in his native language.

Pueblo defense attorney Doug Wilson, says the trial judge's decision to bar Pascual's statement fits with the history of U.S. Supreme Court's opinion in the 1966 Miranda case.

DOUG WILSON: If you read Miranda you can feel the exasperation of the supreme court. They don't want to create this remedy of suppressing. But they basically said we don't have a choice, we've been telling you guys for two decades to stop this stuff and you won't stop it. So the only remedy we have now is to say, when you're going to arrest somebody you're going to have to tell them their rights and then their going to have to knowingly wave those constitutional rights before you can ask them questions. Otherwise the Fifth and Sixth Amendments are both just words on a piece of paper.

RAHER: The Weld County District Attorney says he will continue to prosecute Pascual's case, although he will now have to do so without the benefit of the incriminating statements.

For Western Skies I'm Stephen Raher.

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WHITNEY: More than four thousand people were in Denver last week for the largest ever conference on wind energy. Among them was Western Skies reporter Maeve Conran.

MAEVE CONRAN: Colorado is firmly on the wind power map as it is one of the top twenty U.S. states in terms of wind energy potential. It's is also one of a growing number of States which have enacted policies requiring utility companies to offer a certain amount of electricity from renewable energy sources. Randy Swift is the CEO of the American Wind Energy Association, host of Windpower 2005.

RANDY SWIFT: State policy has been very important in the development of wind today. The examples that were set in Texas, in Iowa, in Minnesota going back about five years, have had a dramatic impact in this industry, in the growth of this industry, so Colorado is following in the footsteps of eighteen other states, that have established such renewable energy standards.

CONRAN: Many of the seminars dealt with the economic advantages of wind energy. Suzanne Tegen, a researcher at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory discussed her study which focused on western states including Colorado.

SUZANNE TEGEN: My research focuses on the statewide economic benefits to Colorado, from coal natural gas and wind, so I'm comparing the three resources. The findings were overwhelmingly that wind brings the greatest economic benefit to Colorado.

CONRAN: Tegen's study showed how construction, operation and maintenance of wind turbines can bring much needed income to rural communities. Other studies analyzed the economic benefits of wind power to energy consumers. Steve Clemmer of the Union of Concerned Scientists

STEVE CLEMMER: There's also broader benefits that result from renewables displacing fossil fuels like natural gas and coal. In doing so, renewables can help bring down the price of natural gas which has been at an all time record high lately, and that has benefits for all consumers, including consumers that heat their homes with natural gas and businesses that run their processes on natural gas and so forth."

CONRAN: One of the aims of Windpower 05 is to place wind energy into the global energy debate. Although wind advocates are encouraged by state wide initiatives like Colorado's. They say similar policies are needed at the federal and global level. Next year's windpower conference is set to take place in Brisbane Australia.

For Western Skies in Denver, I'm Maeve Conran