People v. Hazard

Marquis Hazard was convicted and sentenced to mandatory life without parole for felony murder in 2018. He was 19 years old at the time of the offense. Mr. Hazard appealed his mandatory sentence as violating the Eighth Amendment’s and the Colorado Constitution’s proscriptions against cruel and unusual punishment. The Colorado Court of Appeals denied his appeal on the grounds that the protections against mandatory life without parole afforded by the Eighth Amendment pursuant Miller v. Alabama, do not extend to adolescents above age 18 and that the Colorado Constitution is coextensive with the Eighth Amendment. Mr. Hazard petitioned the Colorado Supreme Court for certiorari review.

Juvenile Law Center, joined by the Transformative Justice Project of Colorado, filed an amicus brief in support of Mr. Hazard’s petition to the Colorado Supreme Court arguing that the Colorado Supreme Court has previously held that its state constitution affords broader protections with respect to punishment than the Eighth Amendment. Our brief presented substantial research demonstrating that older adolescents, including 19-year-olds like Mr. Hazard, share the same developmental characteristics the Supreme Court relied on in Miller to hold that mandatory life without parole is unconstitutional for youth under 18. We urged the Colorado Supreme Court to follow the lead of state supreme courts in Michigan, Massachusetts, and Washington, which have all recently found that mandatory life without parole is unconstitutional for youth under 21.

LEGAL TEAM

Attorneys

Andrew Keats, Marsha Levick, Hannah Stommel