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Colorado Supreme Court Upholds Re-Sentencing Law For Juveniles

Jeffrey Beall
/
Wikimedia Commons

The Colorado Supreme Court has upheld a law that allows judges to reduce the sentences of prisoners serving life without parole for crimes they committed as juveniles.

Monday's ruling came in the case of Curtis Brooks, convicted of murder in a 1995 slaying, when he was 15.

When Brooks requested a resentencing hearing, Arapahoe County District Attorney George Brauchler argued the resentencing law was unconstitutional. He said it gave preferential treatment to Brooks and 16 other prisoners in the same circumstances.

Brauchler is a Republican running for state attorney general.

Brooks' attorney, Dru Nielsen, said the the resentencing hearing can proceed.

The Legislature passed the resentencing law in 2016, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that mandatory sentences of life without parole for juveniles were cruel and unusual, violating the U.S. Constitution.

Copyright 2018 Associated Press. All rights reserved.