Auman v. People

In the early months of 2001, well-known journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson received several letters from the Colorado State Penitentiary; those letters continued for months and described the plight of a Colorado woman who was serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for a murder she did not herself commit. Moved by her story, in June 2004, Thompson co-wrote a piece in Vanity Fair Magazine that highlighted the story of this Colorado woman who was convicted of murder despite being handcuffed in the back of a police car when one of the arresting officers was shot and killed by one of her accomplices; this woman was Lisl Auman. The article, her website: “lisl.com”, and the newfound friendship between Auman and Thompson led to stars like Johnny Depp, Jack Nicholson, Benicio del Toro and Woody Harrelson bringing her case to the public attention. Ultimately, Auman served seven years in a Colorado State Penitentiary before her conviction was overturned by the Colorado Supreme Court in March 2005. The Colorado Supreme Court threw out the felony murder and burglary convictions, stating the trial judge left out “knowingly” when instructing jury about the elements of second-degree burglary. Auman subsequently pled guilty to avoid a retrial. She was subsequently released to Community Corrections where she lived in a halfway house for about nine months and then eventually returned into the Auman family home. Although perhaps one her greatest champions, Thompson never saw Auman’s release; he passed away in 2005.