Weil Secures Denial of State Petition, Preserving New Trial for Client James Genrich

Weil, pro bono with the Innocence Project and the Korey Wise Innocence Project at the University of Colorado School of Law, represented client James Genrich in opposing the State of Colorado’s petition to block a new trial. The team secured an appellate victory when the Colorado Supreme Court, on December 8, 2025, denied the State’s petition for a writ of certiorari. That denial prevents the State from challenging a lower court’s decision granting Mr. Genrich a new trial. Mr. Genrich has been incarcerated for more than three decades following a conviction in a series of pipe bombings that relied on now-debunked toolmark-matching testimony. The State’s expert had testified that Mr. Genrich’s pliers and wire cutters were uniquely capable of producing the marks found on bomb fragments. New scientific developments, uncovered and presented after the original trial, establish that toolmark-matching evidence is unreliable and subject to high error rates. Following an evidentiary hearing, a Colorado trial court concluded the State’s prior expert testimony would now be inadmissible and that, given the new scientific evidence, a jury would likely acquit. The trial court therefore granted a new trial; the Colorado Court of Appeals affirmed that decision; and the Colorado Supreme Court’s denial of the State’s petition preserves Mr. Genrich’s entitlement to a constitutionally fair retrial free of the taint of unreliable expert evidence. Weil represented client James Genrich with a team composed by: Greg Silbert; Brian Liegel; Corey Brady; Marina Masterson; Kara Smith; Jill Jacobson; Retired Partner Irwin Warren, appearing as Senior Pro Bono Counsel; and Retired Partner Ed Soto. The Innocence Project represented client James Genrich with a team composed by: Chris Fabricant. Korey Wise Innocence Project at the University of Colorado School of Law represented client James Genrich with a team composed by: Kathleen Lord and Rebekka Higgs.

Weil Secures Denial of State Petition, Preserving New Trial for Client James Genrich

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