A vast majority of Colorado’s habitual domestic violence offenders are not convicted despite a state law that was passed in 2000 allowing prosecutors to charge people facing their fourth domestic-violence related misdemeanor as felons and a mandatory imprisonment of up to three years.
The problem is that this statute is rarely used. In the past 15 years, there have been only 155 convictions of domestic violence habitual offenders in Colorado. That comes to only about ten convictions a year. Colorado’s domestic violence law seems to be languishing. It has been rejected in some jurisdictions and is used sparingly in others. Prosecutors are sceptical and feel that it is legally vulnerable and not worth the trouble.
No one in Denver County has been charged under the law. In Jefferson County, only known defendants are charged as domestic violence habitual offenders who are facing another felony. Those who have embraced the law (such as the El Paso, Boulder counties and Arapahoe-Douglas prosecutors) also acknowledge the law’s limitations.
A major hurdle facing prosecutors is that they have to track down a defendant’s prior misdemeanors. This becomes especially difficult if they are spread across municipal and county courts and when computer systems are not set up to communicate with each other. In addition, since in Colorado there is no called “domestic violence”, it becomes difficult to determine if a defendant’s previous convictions were related to domestic violence.
The law has become complacent. According to the Denver Metro Domestic Violence Fatality Review Committee, there were 33 killings related to domestic violence in Colorado in 2013. This does not include deaths related to suicides and law enforcement. Despite this, no charges were made and no one was convicted.
“My biggest concern over this issue is that when a violent partner is given a slap on the wrist and released over and over, it really discourages victims from reporting to law enforcement,” said Nancy Olson, executive director of Project Safeguard, a non-profit focused on prevention of domestic violence. “And not just the victim in that particular situation but others in the community. It becomes a tool for the abuser to use to manipulate the victim — ‘Go ahead, call the police. They won’t do anything this time either.’”