By George Brauchler | SOURCE: THE GAZETTE
With more than 100 days left in the 2024 legislative session, the Democrat-controlled General Assembly has already revealed its theme for criminal justice reform, and that theme is “bonkers.”
A review of the Democrat bills thus far introduced are the kind only conceivable with one party dominance in Colorado government.
Many thought it would be impossible for the Democrats to top legislation that mandates a school refer to a child by any name they choose at any time and for any reason. Democrat Rep. Lorena Garcia just said “hold my Bud Lite.”
Current Colorado law prohibits convicted felons from legally changing their name — for obvious reasons. Garcia’s HB 1071 seeks to override that long-standing prohibition to permit name changes when they are necessary “to conform with the [convicted felon’s] gender identity.” Convicted felons who insist on maintaining their birth gender — are they called cis-felons? — are stuck with the names they had when they committed their crimes. For those who choose a different gender identity after they have committed assault, attempted murder, sexual assault, theft, or whatever, they will have statutorily defined “good cause” to escape their felon name and all the baggage that comes with it.
HB 6 is the Democrat-sponsored legislation designed to provide a pathway for legally incompetent criminal defendants — adult and juvenile — to participate in prosecutor-run diversion programs. The bill is crazy.
Colorado law defines incompetency as a problem with the defendant’s gray matter such that it “prevents the defendant from having a rational and factual understanding of the criminal proceedings.” Simply, the defendant does not understand what is going on in court.
Colorado law also states that “diversion should ensure defendant accountability….” Accountability is predicated on the ability to understand the wrongfulness of conduct, admit it, and be capable of reform. Accountability requires competence under our laws. Diversion generally requires an understanding of the proceedings, as well as the terms, conditions and consequences of failing diversion. As a result, if a defendant — adult or juvenile — claims they are incompetent or is declared incompetent by the court, prosecutors decline to admit them into a diversion program. Makes sense, right?
HB 6 blows that up. The Dem sponsors, who are members of the legislative branch, mandate that elected DAs, who are members of the executive branch, exercise their discretion in such a way as not to exclude the legally incompetent from pre-trial diversion programs. Under this bill, Dems believe a defendant can be simultaneously incapable of understanding the courtroom and the law and the case, but totally get it enough to participate in a pre-trial program predicated on understanding the courtroom and the law and he case.
On the Senate side, two of the “blame guns” Democrats have introduced SB 3. The bill seeks to provide nearly $1.7 million in funding to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to hire 10.1 new full-time employees with the seemingly unlimited legal authority to “investigate illegal activity involving firearms statewide.” The bills language is extremely broad and goes well beyond investigating attempts to obtain firearms illegally and the illegal trafficking in firearms.
Without significant amendment to limit the authority of CBI, the bill appears to create a new police force within the Department of Public Safety, one focused exclusively on guns. This would again work at odds with Colorado’s notion of local control over criminal prosecution. By its terms, the grant of unfettered authority by this bill empowers CBI to investigate everything from drunk-with-a-gun charges to first-degree murder. Those are local crimes, and excepting the case in which state resources can augment a rural jurisdiction’s, the locals should investigate and prosecute the crimes.
Finally, there is SB 12, the Democrat measure that would pay convicted felons up to $3,000 upon their release from jail or prison. No, it is not because they earned it, it is because the Dems say they deserve it — for a fresh start on post-incarceration life. Why not $5,000 or $10,000 — or as little at $2? Nobody knows, but the belief that they can mandate how ex-cons spend money given them is naïve.
With 80% of the legislative session still in front of us, it is time to provide heightened scrutiny to what the party in charge is doing. What’s the worst they can do? I just shuddered typing that.
George Brauchler is the former district attorney for the 18th Judicial District. He also is an Owens Early Criminal Justice Fellow at the Common Sense Institute. He hosts “The George Brauchler Show” on 710KNUS Monday through Friday from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. Follow him on Twitter(X): @GeorgeBrauchler.