Democratic lawmakers are trying to move Colorado back toward mercy for young felons by undoing some of the penalties born from the 1993 Summer of Violence — punishments that rank among the toughest in the nation.
A slate of bills would make juveniles less likely to serve life in adult jails, less likely to be judged as competent to stand trial as adults and more likely to receive second chances through child-tailored rehabilitation programs.
Critics say leniency with the most-heinous child felons endangers public safety and takes power from law enforcement working to curb gang violence and other scourges.
But lawmakers such as Rep. Claire Levy — armed with studies saying the juvenile brain is not fully developed — say teenagers have time to turn their lives around.
“They’re so immature, so impulsive,” said Levy, D-Boulder. “They are not capable of fully comprehending the gravity of their actions or long- term consequences.”
Levy’s bill would allow 14- and 15-year-old defendants to ask a judge — instead of a prosecutor — to decide whether they should be tried as adults.
Levy said Colorado is one of seven states that give their district attorneys sole discretion to prosecute adolescents as either juveniles — sending them into child-centric alternative programs — or as adults, who often land in state prisons.
Abuse potential seen
Public defenders say that that power can be abused and judges should have the option to require that kids stay in the juvenile system.
Of Denver’s 134 teens eligible to be tried as adults last year, 13 faced adult courts, according to the district attorney’s office.
At least 1,244 cases have resulted in juvenile convictions in adult courts between 1998 and 2006, the year that The Denver Post analyzed state court administrator data.
A district attorney’s choice to seek adult punishments “is a tool they use judiciously,” said Ted Tow, executive director of the Colorado District Attorney’s Council. “We’re talking about brutal assaults, aggravated assaults, rapes,” he said. “Those bills . . . are simply bad for public safety.”
Prosecutors did not always have powers so broad. Before 1993, teenage felons 16 years or older could be tried as adults for only the most serious crimes or if they were repeat offenders.
But stray bullets loosed during 1993’s so-called Summer of Violence shook the public. Gang violence raged across Denver, hitting unintended targets. A 5-year-old boy was shot in a drive-by, and a bullet struck a 10-month-old on a visit to the Denver Zoo.
The ensuing three years saw laws allowing more teens — as young as 14 — to be tried as adults and for more offenses. Vehicular assaults and homicides were added to the list, among others.
Life sentences
Colorado has sent more than 18 of every 100,000 teens ages 14-17 to prison for life, according to research from advocacy groups Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. As of 2006, a dozen other states had more people serving life sentences for youth crimes.
In 2006, Colorado lawmakers repealed life without parole for juveniles.
The tougher penalties have bolstered public safety by both deterring would-be felons and locking away dangerous child criminals, say Republican leaders such as Sen. Josh Penry of Grand Junction.
Murder rates are dropping — Denver logged 74 homicides in 1993 compared with 50 in 2006 — and so is the number of juveniles tried as adults by some counts.
Some of the proposals could lower the time a teenage offender serves from a minimum of 40 years in state prison to as little as two or three in the juvenile system.
Penry, who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, sees the slate of bills as an attack on a system that works and a way of getting criminals out of a costly correctional system and into cheaper alternatives.
“People in the Capitol don’t trust the prosecutors with that authority,” Penry said. “Felony murder? Those are heinous crimes. District attorneys don’t bring these cases lightly, and jurors don’t decide them lightly.”
Jessica Fender: 303-954-1244 or jfender@denverpost.com
Youth-justice bills
Three bills still in Colorado legislature committee could affect whether teens are tried as juveniles or as adults:
• Senate Bill 66 would allow teens involved in felony murder — but who did not pull the trigger — to go into the Youth Offender System if they plead down to a second- degree felony and are eligible. This amended bill now has support from public defenders and prosecutors.
• House Bill 1208 would allow 14- and 15-year-olds to ask a judge to determine whether they should be tried as adults during a pretrial hearing. It would also remove vehicular assault and vehicular homicide from the list of offenses eligible for adult trials. It would also allow judges to give juvenile sentences to teens convicted as adults.
• House Bill 1142 would allow judges to say immature offenders younger than age 18 are not competent for trials as adults.
