Defense in death penalty cases seek to open files

Colorado’s Supreme Court has asked prosecutors to explain why court records in two death penalty cases should remain secret

The Denver Post reports Thursday the court made the request more than five years after an Arapahoe County District Court judge sealed the files in the cases of Sir Mario Owens and Robert Ray.

Defense attorneys want the files unsealed. The Supreme Court asked for written arguments by Oct. 3.

Owens and Ray were sentenced to death for the 2005 slayings of Vivian Wolfe and Javad Marshall-Fields. Marshall-Fields was to testify against Ray in the 2004 murder of Gregory Vann at an Aurora park.