The Colorado Supreme Court will consider whether municipal courts can punish defendants with jail sentences that far outpace state courts’ limits in a case that could force cities to align with recent state-level criminal justice reforms.
The justices made the unusual move Thursday, agreeing to examine whether the significant differences in potential sentences in state courts and city courts for the same crimes violate defendants’ constitutional rights.
The state Supreme Court agreed to take the case less than a month after The Denver Post reported that municipal courts — designed as the lowest-level courts for the lowest-level crimes — have become the state’s most punitive forum for minor infractions.
Sweeping state-level reforms in 2021 significantly lowered the potential penalties for misdemeanor and petty offenses in Colorado’s state courts, but those reforms didn’t impact municipal courts, which don’t fall under the state judicial system and operate independently from one another. As a result, the potential jail sentences for minor crimes in city courts now often exceed the state’s limits.
The case now going before the state Supreme Court centers on the conviction of a Westminster woman who stole less than $300 worth of goods in July 2022.
Aleah Camp was charged in Westminster Municipal Court, where she faces a potential jail sentence that is 36 times longer and a fine that is almost nine times larger than what would be allowed if she had been charged with the same offense in state court. She faces up to 364 days and a $2,650 fine if convicted in municipal court compared to a maximum of 10 days in jail and a $300 fine in state court.
Police have the option of charging certain crimes in state court or municipal court, and there are often no policies outlining how to make this choice, aside from officer discretion.
Camp’s attorneys argue that this sentencing disparity is unconstitutional and violates her right to equal protection. They also argue that the state’s 2021 reforms should trump local sentencing laws.
Her attorneys, in a petition filed Wednesday, argue legislators wrote the 2021 reform bill in order to promote uniformity and combat racial disparities in misdemeanor sentencing — an issue of “overriding statewide concern” that would preempt Westminster’s city code.
“That legislation, and the statewide interests in racial justice underpinning it, have transformed sentencing fairness and uniformity into an issue of overriding statewide concern, thus preempting attempts by municipalities like Westminster to undermine the General Assembly’s goals through inconsistently punitive local ordinances,” the attorneys wrote.
Westminster, in a statement to The Post on Thursday, said it received the Supreme Court’s order and will respond in due time. The city has until Nov. 14 to make its written case to the justices.
Cities have pushed back on the equal protection argument, arguing the Colorado Constitution allows for home rule — meaning municipalities can pass ordinances addressing matters of local concern.
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Camp’s attorneys argue that home-rule doesn’t apply to the disparate punishments both because the sentences are unconstitutional and because fair and equitable sentencing is a matter of state concern. The potential punishments for crimes should be the same from city to city, they argued.
The Colorado Supreme Court previously indicated an interest in this issue when it took up a 2023 theft case from Rifle, in which two defendants faced jail sentences 18 times longer in municipal court than they would have faced if they had been charged in state court. The justices ultimately dismissed the case after Rifle changed its local ordinance to align with state law.
Still, the Rifle case put a spotlight on the longer sentences in municipal court. In recent months, the issue drew increased attention from defense attorneys — who filed a cascade of legal challenges aimed at reaching the Colorado Supreme Court — and from legislators, who have said they plan to run a bill next year addressing disparate punishment for city crimes.
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