The Colorado General Assembly took steps this session to reform certain aspects of Colorado courts. These include changes to offenses, bonds and juveniles switching to adult court.
There are several bills, both passed and lost, which are worth noting.
Changes to Felony Murder
Signed into law, SB21-124 creates the class 2 felony murder offense when the death of an individual is caused by a participant without deliberation in the course of the commission of specified felony offenses.
Prior law had class 1 felony murder charges listed as pertaining to first-degree murder if a person commits or attempted to commit certain felonies and death of a person, other than a participant, is caused by anyone during a crime.
While several aspects of the bill were eliminated by the time of its passing, 124 moved these crimes to second-degree murder; repealed elements of affirmative defense and changed the penalty to a class 2 felony subject to crime of violence sentencing.
Both of the bill’s prime sponsors were again Democrats, Sen. Pete Lee, and Rep. Mike Weissman.
Pretrial Detention Reform
If this bill is signed by the governor, HB 1280 will require the courts to hold a bond-setting hearing within 48 hours of an arrestee’s arrival at a jail or holding center starting on April 1, 2022.
The bill would also eliminate a part of current law allowing for an individual to post bond within two hours after the sheriff receives bond information. The bill also, absent extraordinary circumstances, requires a custodian to release a defendant who’s granted a personal recognizance bond no later than six hours after the bond is set, physically present in jail and after notification to the jail that the person is prepared to post bond.
The bill further requires sheriffs to create policies complying with bonding requirements by Oct. 1. In addition, if a person is held over six hours after posting bond the jail custodian must provide documentation of the reasons for the delay in the defendant’s file.
Primaries on the bill were all Democrats, including Rep. Steven Woodrow and Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez and Sen. Lee and Robert Rodriguez.
Pretrial Reform
Postponed in the House Committee on Finance indefinitely, would-be SB 273 looked to increase public safety by creating a pathway for community response instead of law enforcement to no-crime calls for service.
SB 273 would’ve created a working group within the Colorado Department of Public Safety to study and propose statewide policy and legislative initiatives to increase community response instead of law enforcement, for lower-level offenses and calls for service without criminal conduct. It further would’ve prohibited a peace officer from making arrests solely on traffic, petty, drug petty, municipal, drug misdemeanor or misdemeanor offenses unless required by statute or other specific requirements.
This postponed bill had full Democratic prime sponsor support, including Sen. Lee and Dominick Moreno, and Rep. Jennifer Bacon and Adrienne Benavidez.
Sentencing Juveniles to Adult Court
With the passing of HB21-1091, an update was made to the sentencing parity for juveniles convicted as adults following their transfer of charges.
Under previous law from the state, a juvenile convicted as an adult following a direct filing of charges in district court wasn’t subject to mandatory minimum sentencing provisions for crimes of violence, according to 1091’s text. At the same time, however, a juvenile convicted as an adult following the transferring of charges from juvenile court to district court was subject to mandatory minimum sentencing for violent crimes.
1091 added language to the juvenile transfer statute which mirrored language currently in the juvenile direct file statutes, requiring that juveniles transferred to adult court are subject to the same sentencing provisions as a juvenile who was in adult court on direct file.
Prime sponsorship on the bill was bipartisan, but two of the three bill sponsors were Democrats Rep. Lindsey Daugherty and Sen. Janet Buckner, with support also from Republican Rep. Mike Lynch.