Juvenile 'Life Without Parole' Case Moves Forward In Arapahoe Co.

CENTENNIAL, CO – A Colorado man convicted in 1995 at age 17 to life without parole for participating in a fatal robbery has a chance to get a new sentencing hearing in Arapahoe County now that the Colorado Supreme Court has overruled a protest filed by the 18th Judicial District Attorney George Brauchler.

In 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that life-without-parole sentences for juveniles were unconstitutional. The Colorado Assembly passed a law in 2016 saying that juveniles that had been given this sentence were entitled to a new sentencing hearing, applying the law retroactively. About 50 total people were serving prison time for felony charges.

Curtis Brooks was 15 when he participated in an Aurora mall robbery that turned fatal. Christopher Ramos, 24, was shot in the head at an ATM by another member of the group of four juveniles. Still, Brooks, as a participant in the robbery, was sentenced as an adult to life without parole.

Brooks's supporters, among them a man who served on the jury that handed down the life sentence, said Brooks had spent his 23 years in prison as a model prisoner, getting a GED and studying languages. He is housed in an incentive unit for prisoners with good behavior. He also has a clemency petition with Gov. John Hickenlooper to commute his sentence to time-served.

In April, the Arapahoe County District Court the Arapahoe County District Court upheld the constitutionality of the re-sentencing law, theoretically paving the way for Brooks to have a new sentencing hearing.

But Brauchler challenged the ruling in the Colorado Supreme Court, saying that making a special rule for a subset of 16 felony murder cases of the 50 total was creating a special or “illusory class” for those cases. The Supreme Court discharged the DA's petition Monday, allowing the district court ruling to stand.

Brauchler's actions set off a battle between DAs and his appeal was criticized in March by Denver District Attorney Beth McCann who filed an amicus brief in favor of the defendant.

“The re-sentencing of juveniles sentenced to life in in prison without the possibility of parole has been settled by the U.S. Supreme Court and the Colorado General Assembly," McCann said in a statement in May. "I believe the legal framework crafted by the legislature in 2016 is sound and should be allowed to be implemented as intended.”

Brooks's lawyers claimed Brauchler was just delaying his hearing. They pointed out that Brooks and the man who pulled the trigger, both African Americans, remain in prison, while the two other members of the group arrested (both white) are now out of prison.

On Monday, Brauchler, who is running in November for Attorney General as the Republican Candidate issued a statement thanking the Supreme Court for hearing his team's appeal.

“We raised this issue because we had doubts about the validity of this law,” Brauchler said in a statement. “The Supreme Court has now spoken, we know what the law is, and we accept that the ruling is now the law of our state. It is important that we now see that Mr. Brooks is back in court as soon as possible for re-sentencing under the 2016 legislation.”

Image via Colorado Dept. of Corrections

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