State Supreme Court Will Hear Brauchler Challenge To Resentencing Law

The Colorado Supreme Court has agreed to hear a challenge to a state law that grants new sentencing hearings for some inmates who were sentenced to life without parole for crimes they committed as juveniles.

Related:

• Curtis Brooks was 15 years old when he was sentenced to life in prison without parole for a shooting death in which he didn’t pull the trigger.
• Dozens of Coloradans sentenced to either life without parole or very long sentences as juveniles now have a chance at release.

The Denver Post reports Arapahoe County District Attorney George Brauchler challenged the constitutionality of the 2016 law earlier this month, arguing that it created legislation for a special class of people.

More than a dozen people are serving mandatory life without parole in Colorado prisons for felony murder cases that occurred when they were juveniles.

Brauchler filed a brief after a lower court ruled that the state law was constitutional.
The state Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments in the case in June.