ACTION ALERT
Please Act Today to Help Pass House Bill 1271
Limit the prosecution of children as adults
Please contact the following legislators today!
HB 1271 makes important changes regarding the circumstances by which a child can be charged as an adult and prosecuted in adult criminal court. Under current law, juveniles who are at least 14 years old and who are charged with certain serious crimes may be prosecuted in adult court at the discretion of the District Attorney, a process known as direct file.
HB 1271 makes a number of changes to direct file and is being sponsored by Representatives BJ Nikkel (R-Loveland), Beth McCann (D-Denver), and Claire Levy (D-Boulder) and Senator Angela Giron (D-Pueblo).
HB 1271 would:
- limit the offenses for which a juvenile could be eligible for direct file to only the most serious and repeat violent offenses (specifically, class 1 or 2 felonies, violent sex offenses, and crimes of violence committed by prior violent juvenile offenders)
- raise the minimum age to 16 years old
- require that a Judge remand a case back to juvenile court if, after a preliminary hearing, the Judge does not find probable cause for a direct-file offense or if such an offense is dismissed at a later date.
- For cases that are direct filed, the child is permitted to file a motion with the district court to have the case transferred to juvenile court. The Judge would make the decision whether the child should be prosecuted as a juvenile or an adult.
- In cases where the Judge transferred the case to juvenile court and the child was sentenced as a juvenile, the child’s conviction could be expunged, like other juvenile records.
On March 8, 2012, HB 1271 passed the House Judiciary Committee with bi-partisan support on a vote of 9-2 but there is considerable opposition to this bill from the District Attorney’s Council.
The bill will next be heard in House Appropriations Committee and could be heard any day. Please contact these members of the House Appropriations Committee and ask them for their support. If you don't know who your legislator is go to VOTE SMART and enter your nine-digit zip code. If you don't know your nine-digit zip code go to Zip Code look-up.
Chair, Representative Becker (R-Adams, Cheyenne, Crowley, Kiowa, Kit Carson, Lincoln, Morgan,Washington, Yuma)
Vice Chair, Representative Gerou (R-Jefferson County)
303-866-258, cheri.gerou@
Representative Ferrandino (D-Denver)
Representative Hullinghorst (D-Boulder)
Representative Andy Kerr (D-Jefferson)
Representative Looper (R-El Paso)
Representative Solano (D-Adams)
Representative Vaad (R-Weld)
Please also thank the following members of the House Appropriations Committee who also are on the House Judiciary Committee who already voted in favor of HB 1271. Thank them for their support and their continued support.
Representative Brian DelGrosso (R-Loveland)
Representative Jerry Sonnenberg (R-Sterling)
Representative Dan Pabon (D-Denver)
For more information, you can contact the Colorado Juvenile Defender Coalition, , email: cjdc@cjdc.org. They also released a new special report on this issue, Re-Directing Justice: the prosecution of youth as adults and the need for judicial oversight available at http://cjdc.org/wp/
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