Alex Joseph Martinez (born April 19, 1951) is an American attorney who served as an associate justice of the

Supreme Court of Colorado The Colorado Supreme Court is the highest court in the U.S. state of Colorado. Located in Denver, the Court consists of a Chief Justice and six Associate Justices. Powers and duties Appellate jurisdiction Discretionary appeals The Court p ...

from 1996 to 2011. Born in

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

, Martinez attended

Phillips Exeter Academy (not for oneself) la, Finis Origine Pendet (The End Depends Upon the Beginning) gr, Χάριτι Θεοῦ (By the Grace of God) , location = 20 Main Street , city = Exeter, New Hampshire , zipcode ...

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

and

Reed College Reed College is a private liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1908, Reed is a residential college with a campus in the Eastmoreland neighborhood, with Tudor-Gothic style architecture, and a forested canyon nature preserve at ...

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

. He received a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

from the

University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: University of Colorado Boulder, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, University of Colorado Denver, and the University of Co ...

in 1973, followed by a

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...

from the

University of Colorado Law School The University of Colorado Law School is one of the professional graduate schools within the University of Colorado System. It is a public law school, with more than 500 students attending and working toward a Juris Doctor or Master of Studies in ...

in 1976.Colorado Judicial Branch, "Colorado Supreme Court Justice Alex Martinez to be honored by Denver Hispanic Chamber of Commerce at annual gala" (October 17, 2003). Martinez was a deputy state public defender in Denver from 1976 to 1979. when he relocated to

Pueblo, Colorado Pueblo () is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home rule municipality that is the county seat and the List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous municipality of Pueblo County, Colorado, Pueblo County, Colorado ...

to supervise state public defender's office there. In 1983, Governor

Richard Lamm Richard Douglas Lamm (August 3, 1935 – July 29, 2021) was an American politician, writer, and attorney. He served three terms as 38th Governor of Colorado as a Democrat (1975–1987) and ran for the Reform Party's nomination for Presiden ...

appointed Martinez to a county court judge seat in Pueblo County, and in 1988 Governor

Roy Romer Roy Rudolf Romer (born October 31, 1928) is an American politician who served as the List of governors of Colorado, 39th Governor of Colorado from 1987 to 1999, and subsequently as the Superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, su ...

appointed Martinez as a district court judge in Colorado's Tenth Judicial District. In September 1996, Romer elevated Martinez to the Supreme Court of Colorado. Martinez was retained on the court in 2000, and again in a strongly contested process in 2010. He resigned from the court in 2011 to accept a post as Manager of Safety for the city of Denver. Shortly after entering into this position, Martinez engendered some controversy by referring to a critical review of the police department as "nitpicky", although the comment endeared Martinez to the police. He left that position in 2013. From 2013 to 2016, he served as the General Counsel of the Denver Public School District.

References

1951 births Living people 20th-century American judges 20th-century American lawyers 21st-century American judges Colorado state court judges Hispanic and Latino American judges Lawyers from Denver Public defenders Justices of the Colorado Supreme Court Reed College alumni University of Colorado alumni University of Colorado Law School alumni {{US-state-judge-stub