Court to weigh parolees' rights

ACLU claim fights current state law

Sue Lindsay, Rocky Mountain News

Published June 7, 2006 at midnight

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The Colorado Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case involving the right of parolees to vote.

The American Civil Liberties Union sought the court's review after a Denver district judge dismissed an ACLU challenge to a Colorado law barring paroled prisoners from voting.

The ACLU filed a class-action lawsuit in November, seeking a ruling on whether the law violates rights guaranteed by the Colorado Constitution.

On May 26, Denver District Judge Michael Martinez dismissed the complaint because, he said, a parolee is still completing his sentence and therefore is legally deprived from voting.

The Supreme Court accepted the case Monday.

The ACLU contends the state constitution provides that convicted criminals lose their right to vote only while they are incarcerated and that the right is restored when they are released on parole.

The constitution states that voting rights are restored when a person has "served out his full term of imprisonment."

Martinez ruled that a prisoner's rights of citizenship are not restored until parole is completed.

The Supreme Court has held that "a parolee's legal status is the same as that of a felon actually incarcerated for purposes of denying them equal protection under the law," Martinez said.

The ACLU sued Secretary of State Gigi Dennis on behalf of 6,000 parolees, the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition and Colorado-Cure.

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