Republican lawmakers called on Gov. Jared Polis on Thursday to summon legislators back to Denver for a special legislative session so that they can address a recent state Supreme Court ruling that allows people charged with first-degree murder to be released if they pay bail.
In a statement, Senate Republicans said the governor and legislators needed to immediately respond to last month’s court ruling and pass a law barring people charged with murder from being able to post bail. A separate statement from the top Republican in the House also called for an immediate response, though he stopped short of requesting a special session.
Democrats, meanwhile, argued that while they supported tackling the issue, such a change would require a constitutional amendment that’s impossible to submit to voters this year.
Before the court’s ruling, defendants charged with first-degree murder weren’t eligible for bail. But, pointing to the 2020 repeal of the death penalty in Colorado, the state Supreme Court decided in June that defendants facing what once were capital-level offenses are now entitled to bail.
That’s prompted some local judges to slap large bail amounts — $100 million in one case — on some defendants charged with first-degree murder as the judicial system grapples with the implications of the decision.
“This issue must be addressed now, not next year,” Republican Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, of Weld County, said in a statement from the Senate Republican caucus. “We urge Governor Polis to convene a special session immediately — we need to get back to work, do our job and pass a law that stops protecting suspected murderers and starts protecting the people of Colorado.”
The legislature finished its scheduled work on May 8. Only Polis — or an unlikely supermajority of both Democrat-controlled chambers — has the ability to call for a special session.
In their own statements, Democrats countered that the bail issue can’t be fixed right now. Polis spokesman Conor Cahill said the governor “supports changes to prevent suspects formally charged with capital offenses from getting out on bail” and that he wants the legislature to take up the issue. But his statement suggested the change would require a constitutional amendment, which, in turn, would need to be forwarded to the voters. That type of amendment can only be advanced in even-numbered years, Cahill and others said.
Top Democrats from the House and Senate echoed that sentiment in separate statements.
Senate President Steve Fenberg, a Boulder Democrat, said fixing the bail issue “likely requires a change” to the state constitution and that calling a special session “would do nothing to actually address the issue immediately.” House Speaker Julie McCluskie called the special session request “pure partisanship.” Fenberg and House Majority Leader Monica Duran called for a bipartisan approach.
In response to critiques that his caucus’ ask was impossible, Sen. Paul Lundeen — the minority leader and top Republican in the Senate — said in a statement that there were “several legal theories of how to address the issue.” He acknowledged that the “elegant permanent solution” was a ballot measure, but that action needed to be taken more swiftly. He did not elaborate on how that could be achieved.
Lundeen’s counterpart in the House, Republican Minority Leader Mike Lynch, wrote in his own statement that his caucus was working with law enforcement to “draft law-and-order legislation for next session” in response to the ruling.
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