Colorado prosecutors indicated Thursday that they are willing to discuss changes to harsh juvenile sentencing laws – as long as those changes wouldn’t alter punishments for inmates now serving life without parole for crimes they committed as teens.
The offer from the Colorado District Attorney’s Council came as a House committee approved a bill that would require parole hearings after 40 years for juveniles convicted as adults of committing murders, including past offenders.
The approval of the measure sponsored by Rep. Lynn Hefley, R-Colorado Springs, came after four hours of emotional written and live testimony from family members of victims.
“I am appalled this bill would even take up your time and even be considered,” wrote Carolyn Seewald, whose aunt was killed by two juveniles. “The only peace a family has, when they lose a loved one, is the satisfaction that the perpetrator or murderer gets punished to the fullest extent of the law.”
Prosecutors characterized a clause in Hefley’s measure – to grant parole options for past offenders – as the “death knell” for their support.
“We’re united against retroactivity,” said Tom Raynes, Gunnison County district attorney and spokesman for the DA council, summing up the stance of most prosecutors around the state. Instead, Raynes said the council would seriously consider supporting a bill to offer parole options to future juvenile killers.
Hefley immediately countered that “they in fact are not willing to work at all, period,” referring to recent attempts at winning the support of DAs for any changes to current law.
Hefley set the stage for the hearing by asking whether justice had been served by allowing Colorado DAs to file charges against juveniles in 1,244 cases since 1998; by slicing millions of dollars from juvenile rehabilitation programs; and by bringing a disproportionate number of felony murder charges, which require a lower standard of proof, against youths when compared with adults.
“We need not only to be fair but balanced decisionmakers,” Hefley said. “We need reform to restore justice and provide a glimmer of hope to juveniles who have all but shut down their existence.”
She also said her bill would take into account scientific research that shows physiological differences make teens more likely to make bad judgments than adult killers.
And psychiatrist Jerry Yager, executive director of the Denver Children’s Home, implored lawmakers to consider that juvenile brains aren’t fully developed. He said juveniles should be eligible for rehabilitation instead of a prison environment that can shape them into harder criminals.
“The question really is, even though the crimes are heinous, what types of experience should they be exposed to so we can have a safer community?” Yager said.
Several prosecutors and family members of victims blasted the judiciary committee and The Denver Post for raising questions about the judicial system’s treatment of youth murderers. Victims’ relatives showed pictures of the deceased, and prosecutors brandished crime-scene photos, asking lawmakers to consider the gruesome nature of the crimes.
“My son flew in the air, came down and shattered the windshield,” said Monica Goetsch, the mother of Danny Goetsch, who was struck by an automobile driven by a drunken 16-year-old in 1991.
Relatives of Matthew Foley, 16, who was shot and killed by Trevor Jones in 1996, asked lawmakers to reconsider the bill because it would allow the possibility of releasing Jones, who they believe intentionally killed their son. Jones contends it was an accident.
Other victims’ kin said that Hefley’s recurring efforts – now 7 years old – to relax life-without-parole sentences for offenders would break a promise the court system made to them and force them to relive nightmares.
“Please don’t ever let him out of prison,” said Susan Leinen, widow of a Denver police officer killed 11 years ago by a juvenile gunman.
The committee members passed the bill by a near-party-line vote of 7-4. Hefley was the only Republican to support the measure.
Rep. Anne McGihon, D-Denver, said the state can’t just throw kids’ lives away. “What this bill talks about is whether we want to give up on a life,” McGihon said. “It’s a horrible thing to have lost one life, and I don’t think we want to give up on a second one.”
The state’s DAs pressed the panel to consider that the 45 life-without-parole cases were the worst among 226 cases of juveniles charged with first-degree murder since 1990, meaning that options other than life incarceration were given to the majority of youths.
Raynes and other DAs also argued that the measure would unconstitutionally intrude on the governor’s clemency authority, though Hefley hoped to resolve that question with an amendment requiring released killers to get permanent parole restrictions.
Adams County DA Don Quick said he would consider giving future killers a shot at parole after 40 years with the condition that they are under parole supervision for the rest of their lives.
