The Colorado Supreme Court won’t review a lower court decision upholding a new-trial order for a Grand Junction man convicted in a string of deadly pipe bombings.
On Monday the state high court denied a petition from the 21st Judicial District Attorney’s Office calling for a review of the Colorado Court of Appeals decision. That decision upheld a lower court ruling that James Genrich should be granted a new trial in the case because of newly discovered evidence.
Genrich was convicted on multiple charges in 1993 related to a string of pipe bombings that killed two people in Grand Junction, Maria Delores Gonzales and Henry Ruble. An appeals effort that includes attorneys from the Innocence Project has sought to have Genrich freed, pointing to the new scientific developments that show discredited forensic evidence was used in the original conviction.
Twenty-first Judicial District Attorney Dan Rubinstein said his office would begin preparing for a new trial.
“We were disappointed that the Colorado Supreme Court declined the opportunity to hear the case, but understand that a very small percentage of cases are accepted by them. Now our focus can be turned entirely to preparing for the retrial,” Rubinstein said in an email to CPR News.
The Colorado Supreme Court does not issue an opinion when denying a Writ of Certiorari.
The evidence in question relates to expert tool-mark analysis that was used as evidence in the trial. At the time, a witness testified that marks found on exploded pipe bombs could be connected to tools owned by Genrich “to the exclusion of all others.”
That type of forensic analysis has since been discredited by the National Academy of Sciences, which debunked some forensic science practices in a study that began in 2008.
A new trial date has not yet been set.
