Murder in Colorado law constitutes the unlawful killing, under circumstances defined by law, of people within or under the jurisdiction of the U.S. state of

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

. The United States

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the National public health institutes, national public health agency of the United States. It is a Federal agencies of the United States, United States federal agency under the United S ...

reported that in the year 2020, the state had a murder rate somewhat below the median for the entire country.

Definitions

First-degree murder

There are several types of first-degree murder in Colorado, those being: *Intentionally killing another person with

premeditation Malice aforethought is the "premeditation" or "predetermination" (with malice) required as an element of some crimes in some jurisdictions and a unique element for first-degree or aggravated murder in a few. Insofar as the term is still in use, ...

*Committing

perjury Perjury (also known as forswearing) is the intentional act of swearing a false oath or falsifying an affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to an official proceeding."Perjury The act or an insta ...

leading to an innocent person's execution *Causing the death of another person caused by the perpetrator's extreme indifference to the value of human life *Distributing a drug to a

minor Minor may refer to: Common meanings * Minor (law), a person not under the age of certain legal activities. * Academic minor, a secondary field of study in undergraduate education Mathematics * Minor (graph theory), a relation of one graph to an ...

on school grounds causing the minor's death *Knowingly causing the death of a child under the age of 12 when the perpetrator was in a position of trust over the child First-degree murder in Colorado carries a mandatory sentence of

life imprisonment Life imprisonment is any sentence (law), sentence of imprisonment under which the convicted individual is to remain incarcerated for the rest of their natural life (or until pardoned or commuted to a fixed term). Crimes that result in life impr ...

without the possibility of

parole Parole, also known as provisional release, supervised release, or being on paper, is a form of early release of a prisoner, prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated ...

. The death penalty is possible for intentional first-degree murder if the crime was committed before July 1, 2020. Following Colorado abolishing the death penalty for all crimes after that date, Governor

Jared Polis Jared Schutz Polis ( ; ; born May 12, 1975) is an American politician and businessman serving as the 43rd governor of Colorado since 2019. He served one term on the Colorado State Board of Education from 2001 to 2007, and five terms as the Unite ...

commuted all of Colorado's remaining death row prisoners' sentences to life-without-parole.

Second-degree murder

Second-degree murder is defined as intentionally causing the death of another person without premeditation, and that the killing was ''not'' in the heat-of-passion, or causing the death of another person during the commission or attempted commission of a felony under Colorado's felony murder rule. It is punishable by 16 to 48 years in prison.

Felony murder rule

In Colorado, the

common law Common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law primarily developed through judicial decisions rather than statutes. Although common law may incorporate certain statutes, it is largely based on prece ...

felony murder rule has been codified in Colorado Revised Statutes § 18-3-103. As of September 15, 2021, the

statute A statute is a law or formal written enactment of a legislature. Statutes typically declare, command or prohibit something. Statutes are distinguished from court law and unwritten law (also known as common law) in that they are the expressed wil ...

classifies a

homicide Homicide is an act in which a person causes the death of another person. A homicide requires only a Volition (psychology), volitional act, or an omission, that causes the death of another, and thus a homicide may result from Accident, accidenta ...

second degree murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse committed with the necessary intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisdiction. ("The killing of another person without justification or excuse, ...

when committed during one of these predicate

felonies A felony is traditionally considered a crime of high seriousness, whereas a misdemeanor is regarded as less serious. The term "felony" originated from English common law (from the French medieval word "''félonie''") to describe an offense that ...

: *Committing or attempting to commit arson, robbery, burglary, kidnapping, sexual assault, or a class 3 felony sexual assault on a child *Or if in the course of one of these crimes or the immediate escape from it, anyone causes the death of a person other than one of the participants For the reason above, Colorado's felony murder rule is unique compared to some other states' felony murder rules, in that it does not allow a person to be charged with felony murder if the person that died during the felony was a co-conspirator to the felony.

Heat-of-passion second-degree murder

Heat-of-passion second-degree murder is defined as a mitigated version of intentional second-degree murder, in which the perpetrator intentionally caused the death of another person in the sudden heat-of-passion, commonly known in other jurisdictions as

voluntary manslaughter Voluntary manslaughter is the killing of a human in which the offender acted in the heat of passion, a state that would cause a reasonable person to become emotionally or mentally disturbed to the point that they cannot reasonably control thei ...

. It is punishable by 4 to 12 years in prison.

Penalties

References

Murder in Colorado Colorado law U.S. state criminal law {{criminal-law-stub