Colorado voters scrap bail for first-degree murder defendants

DENVER (CN) — Colorado voters on Tuesday passed a state constitutional amendment revoking the right to bail from people charged with first-degree murder. Voters also rejected measures to replace the state’s election system with ranked choice voting and a proposed ban on big cat hunting.

Although the Centennial State often splits along partisan and urban-rural lines, voters statewide overwhelmingly supported Amendment I, with early results showing 70% in favor of denying bail for first-degree murder defendants.

“I think people think that if somebody commits a murder, they should go stay in jail, and they shouldn’t get bail,” said Robert Gessner, a 70-year-old independent voter in Aurora who typically favors Republicans.

When the state legislature repealed the death penalty in 2020, they also removed the only mechanism for outright denying pretrial release to people charged with first-degree murder. In the June 2023 case People v. Smith, the state Supreme Court found that without any capital crimes on the books, all individuals charged had the right to bail.

Since then, Colorado judges have held bail hearings for roughly 500 people charged with first-degree murder — for the first, and likely last, time in state history.

Through that period, judges used prohibitive financial barriers to keep people in jail, including a Boulder judge who imposed a $100 million bar on release for a man who killed 10 people at a grocery store.

In Centennial, south of Denver, another judge imposed a $10 million bar on release for a wealthy dentist accused of poisoning his wife in 2023, motivating then-state Senator Rhonda Fields to sponsor a bill in her final term to close the loophole.

“A constituent reached out to me, very concerned because he was eligible for bond and because they were frightened that he might retaliate against them,” Fields told Courthouse News over the phone.

The bill passed the Senate unanimously and received just five no votes in the House.

Opponents of Amendment I wanted to maintain the post-Smith system that gave judges the most flexibility in individual situations, such as when a person was a victim of domestic violence or appeared to be acting in self-defense.

“Amendment I isn’t simply ‘closing a loophole,’” said Kyle Giddings, Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition civic engagement coordinator, via email. “Amendment I violates the principle of innocence until proven guilty and removes a judge’s discretion to decide whether someone poses a flight risk or risk to public safety, which are the relevant factors for whether to set bond.”

Ranked choice, big cats

Coloradans across the state likewise voted in support of Prop 128, which mandates individuals convicted of certain violent offenses must serve at least 85% of their sentence before being eligible parole, and imposes a three-strikes rule denying early release to anyone convicted of three violent crimes. Early results indicate 62% of voters statewide supported the measure, with just liberal Boulder County rejecting it.

Only five counties, including Denver and Summit, supported a proposition to install an open primary and four-candidate ranked choice general election in Colorado.

Most places in the U.S. award the election to whoever gets the most votes. Ranked choice winners, however, must get more than 50% of the vote to prevail. That number is tallied as candidates who receive the least first-round votes get swapped for voters’ second-choice vote.

Proponents of ranked choice voting, say it can help break up partisan divides and gives third party candidates a shot without being spoilers. Several proponents of ranked choice voting opposed the measure, saying it created a system that would benefit wealthier candidates.

“The reason we are not supportive is that Proposition 131 is not a straightforward rank choice voting initiative,” said Aly Belknap, executive director of Common Cause Colorado. The group has supported the system in other states, as well as Colorado’s same-day voter registration and default mail-in voting system.

Choices wouldn’t be ranked in the “jungle primary,” Belknap pointed out, and having four candidates run in the general election could make campaigning prohibitively expensive.

Under the system proposed by the measure, Belknap said, “What we risk is giving an even greater advantage to wealthy candidates and a bigger voice to special interests.”

Proponents of the proposition poured $14 million into the cause, with donors including former CEO of health care company DaVita Kent Thiry and Chevron.

Fifty-five percent of Coloradans rejected a measure to ban big cat hunting, which had been supported by actor Robert Redford, primatologist Jane Goodall and tiger queen Carole Baskin.

More than 2.7 million Coloradans voted in the 2024 election, including 1.2 million unaffiliated voters, 777,000 Democrats and 732,000 Republicans.

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