Colorado Supreme Court Grants Certiorari in Bacharach Law Case
On August 3, 2026, the Colorado Supreme Court granted certiorari in Lewis v. Stancil, No. 26SC178 — a case in which attorney William Bacharach is counsel of record for the petitioner. The Court accepted both questions presented, en banc. Of the roughly forty petitions decided in the same announcement, two were granted. Briefing and oral argument before the state’s highest court will follow.
The Colorado Supreme Court chooses its cases. Unlike the court of appeals, which must hear properly filed appeals, the Supreme Court grants review only where a petition persuades the justices that a question matters beyond one case and it declines the overwhelming majority. In the August 3 case announcements alone, the Court denied certiorari in more than thirty-five cases and granted it in two. Lewis v. Stancil was one of them.
The Questions the Court Agreed to Decide
The Court granted review of both issues presented, quoted here from the announcement:
Granted Issues — No. 26SC178
- “Whether the court of appeals erred in holding that the Department of Corrections has no duty to treat petitioner’s nunc pro tunc sentence as part of an inmate’s ‘one continuous sentence’ under section 17-22.5-101, C.R.S. (2025), and therefore was not required to apply petitioner’s previously awarded earned time credits to that sentence when calculating petitioner’s parole eligibility date.”
- “Whether the court of appeals’ holding that discharged sentences cannot be considered in a one continuous sentence calculation, despite the sentencing court’s nunc pro tunc order backdating petitioner’s subsequent sentence to a date when the discharged sentences were still active, conflicts with established Colorado nunc pro tunc jurisprudence requiring such orders to be ‘fully operative on the litigant’s rights as of the prescribed effective date.’”
Why These Questions Matter Beyond One Case
Behind the procedural language is something concrete: how the Colorado Department of Corrections calculates when a person becomes eligible for parole. Colorado law directs that multiple sentences be treated as “one continuous sentence” for that computation, and earned time credits — time people earn through program compliance and good conduct — shorten the path to a parole hearing. How those rules interact with a nunc pro tunc sentence (a sentence a court orders backdated to an earlier effective date) determines real months and years of custody for people across the DOC system. When the Supreme Court answers a sentence-computation question, the answer applies statewide.
What Happens Next
A grant of certiorari is the beginning, not the end. The parties will file merits briefs, and the Court will likely set the case for oral argument in Denver. Colorado Supreme Court arguments are open to the public and broadcast on the judicial branch’s website — we will share the argument date when it is set. A decision typically follows some months after argument.
An important note: a grant of certiorari is not a decision on the merits. It means the Colorado Supreme Court has agreed to answer the questions presented, nothing about the outcome is decided or guaranteed.
Appellate and Post-Conviction Work at Bacharach Law
William Bacharach represents clients at every stage of a Colorado criminal case from arrest through trial, and when necessary, beyond it: direct appeals, sentence-computation and parole-eligibility disputes, and post-conviction proceedings under Crim. P. 35. A former deputy state public defender with more than twenty cases tried to verdict, he brings trial-court instincts to appellate work: the record is built, or lost, long before a brief is written. Learn more about the firm’s criminal appeals and post-conviction practice.
This post reports a procedural development in a pending case, based on the Colorado Supreme Court’s published case announcements of August 3, 2026. A grant of certiorari is not a decision on the merits, and nothing here predicts or promises any outcome. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes. This is attorney advertising; it is general information, not legal advice.
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William Bacharach
Founder and Managing Attorney at Bacharach Law. Former Deputy State Public Defender (Jefferson County) with 20+ cases tried to verdict. Counsel of record in Lewis v. Stancil, No. 26SC178, pending before the Colorado Supreme Court. Colorado Bar #59714. VA-Accredited Attorney, Accreditation No. 60893. J.D., University of Florida Levin College of Law, Cum Laude. Lifetime Member, Colorado Criminal Defense Bar; Member, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Colorado Bar Association, and Denver Bar Association.