We hope that Gov. Bill Owens signs a bill to make parole possible after 40 years for juveniles tried and convicted of murder in adult court.
The bill will apply only to future cases, easing a Draconian provision in Colorado law that has resulted in 45 youths being sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole after being convicted of felony murder. Some had only peripheral roles in the crimes.
The legislation is a good first step, but further amendment may be needed of a 1993 law passed hastily in reaction to the so- called “Summer of Violence.”
House Bill 1315, sponsored by Rep. Lynn Hefley, R-Colorado Springs, and Sen. Ken Gordon, D-Denver, won final passage in the Senate on Wednesday after clearing the House on April 26.
Because of past injustices, Hefley had tried for seven years to change the 1993 law that allows juveniles as young as 14 to be tried as adults.
As originally written, her bill would have allowed previously convicted youths to be considered for parole, but Hefley amended it to apply only to future cases after Attorney General John Suthers raised the constitutional objection that only the governor can commute a sentence once final judgment has been entered.
Gordon, the Senate sponsor, scrapped a planned amendment to make the teens eligible for parole in less than 40 years after Hefley struck a deal with prosecutors who said they wanted to make sure that no youths would become eligible for release until they’re at least in their 50s.
But being eligible for parole doesn’t mean it will be granted automatically. Indeed, some – not all – teen killers have committed such heinous crimes that they never should walk free again. But that doesn’t mean that all teens are beyond redemption and that they should be locked up and the key thrown away. Some lives can be salvaged.
Recent science indicates that teenagers’ brains aren’t fully developed, especially the areas involving judgment. The U.S. Supreme Court recognized that fact when it outlawed the death penalty for killers who were minors when they committed their crimes. A logical corollary is that neither should all teens involved in homicides be locked up for life.
Another needed change is to take away the sole discretion of district attorneys to charge youths as adults. Such decision properly should be made by the courts. But that’s a battle for another day.
