Mr. Sellers was convicted in 2019 of felony murder and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole (LWOP). Less than two years later, Colorado’s legislature passed Senate Bill 21-124 for felony murders committed on or after September 15, 2021. Until passage of this bill, Colorado’s first-degree murder statute was one of the broadest in the country, encompassing not only intentional, after-deliberation homicides, but also felony murder, which requires no mens rea. In 2021, the legislature reclassified felony murder from a class 1 to a class 2 felony, which had the effect of reducing the sentencing range from mandatory LWOP to 16-48 years. However, the law as passed was prospective only. As a result, several hundred people remained in the Colorado Department of Corrections serving mandatory LWOP sentences for felony murder.
Mr. Sellers challenged the constitutionality of his LWOP sentence for felony murder citing the recent change in the law as an objective indicia of evolving community norms in Colorado and throughout the nation. In September 2022, the Colorado Court of Appeals ruled against Mr. Sellers and upheld his LWOP conviction. The Colorado Supreme Court accepted cert to decide whether a LWOP sentence for felony murder is categorically unconstitutional following the Colorado General Assembly’s reclassification of that offense. We filed an amicus brief in support of Mr. Sellers that focused on the racially biased impact of sentencing for felony murder. On September 30, the Supreme Court issued a disappointing ruling holding that a LWOP sentence for felony murder does not violate the federal or state constitutions.
