The Senate today approved a bill that critics charge amounts to a “get out of jail free card” for criminals. Proponents argued that it levels the playing field between defendants and prosecutors.

House Bill 1363 gives defendants the ability to ask the judge to permanently dismiss criminal charges if the defendant is not competent to stand trial and is unlikely to ever become competent.

“If a defendant is incompetent, the judge can decide so,” Mitchell added. “But for the power to deny forever the right to bring charges, that power should belong to the prosecutor who decides whether to bring charges in the first place”

Under current law, for defendants that are incompetent, the prosecutor has the ability to wait and bring charges after the defendant is cured. The prosecutor also has the sole authority to make a motion to permanently dismiss the charges if he or she thinks the defendant will not become cured. HB 1363 extends the authority to make that motion to defendants.

“We’re leveling a playing field and we’re giving a defendant the same right that a district attorney already has,” said Sen. Brandon Shaffer, D-Longmont. “All this is is fair.”

Critics argue that the defendant should never be able to choose to be free from future charges. That authority, they say, should be at the discretion of the people’s elected law enforcement officials.

“That sounds balanced… until you consider the substance of that motion,” countered Mitchell. “It is the offer not to bring charges. It is the people, through the prosecutor, telling that court ‘we believe this person is never going to get better and we are willing to release our ability to bring charges.’”

“It makes no sense for a defendant to be able to say ‘I’m never going to get better – Judge, I want you to tell the prosecutor never to bring charges against me again,’” he continued. “That’s just another way of seeking a get out of jail free card.”

Critics insist that this bill is the latest in a line of soft-on-crime legislation being pushed through by the Democrat majority in the legislature.