Victims and lawmakers continue to fight for a change in Colorado competency laws
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) - Colorado lawmakers are heeding calls for courtroom reform regarding crimes that have gone unpunished when a defendant is deemed mentally incompetent to stand trial.
In recent years, we've tracked multiple examples of alleged crimes that have gone unpunished, due to a defendant's mental state, making them unable to help in their own defense.
Critics in Colorado point to a trio of state laws passed in 2024 and 2025.
With a shortage of doctors and mental health bed space, the laws mandate the release of incompetent defendants after a certain length of time, even when there is clear evidence or an admission of guilt.
According to one lawmaker KRDO13 spoke to, this has led to crime victims and their families paying the price.
The reason was a traumatic brain injury that made him unable to work with his own lawyers on his own defense.
Colorado State Senator Judy Amabile (D), Boulder, says there needs to be a better way to handle such cases.
"We don't have any way to say that, 'Hey, somebody who has an intellectual or developmental disability, who is violent and who is in our criminal justice system, ' we don't have any way to create a faster pathway to a placement for them," says Sen. Amabile.
Lawmakers point out that currently, judges in Colorado do not have the ability to commit a defendant to a mental health facility by court order. Even if they did, they say a severe shortage of bed spaces in Colorado would prevent that from happening regularly.
Senator Amabile says that is why she's preparing legislation that would give judges that power, while also increasing state funding for more bed spaces.
Britany Visage, who lost her mother as a result of the incident in Monument, says that though the crime can't be undone, giving judges more control over the outcome would be a step in the right direction.
"There were many individuals, and many families that were impacted by these laws," says Visage, "I know our family will never be the same, you know? We can hopefully change these laws and try to make sure no other family goes through this...that's not going to bring our mom back. But it feels necessary"
Britany has started her own petition in hopes that the community will join her family and lawmakers in fighting for change. That petition has received over six thousand signatures.
You can read more on our previous coverage here.
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