It might sound like an overstatement to say Colorado’s offender-friendly legislature is hellbent on decriminalizing crime itself. But, really, what else could you make of House Bill 26-1281, introduced just the other day at the state Capitol? Get ready to blink in disbelief.

Members of the “justice reform” fringe among ruling Democrats at the legislature actually are proposing to redefine first-degree murder as we know it. That’s right, “Murder 1.”

Under HB 26-1281, the time-honored, statutory definition of first-degree murder — knowingly engaging “in conduct which creates a grave risk of death to a person … under circumstances evidencing an attitude of universal malice manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life” — no longer would apply to taking a life.

Instead, a murderer would have to take at least two lives to qualify for murder in the first degree. 

And taking a single life? The legislation explicitly downgrades “the death of only one other person” to “murder in the second degree.” No matter how heinous.

A hit man for hire need never fear facing Murder 1 again, so long as he takes out only one target per job.

The rationale behind this madness? 

The bill’s legislative declaration spouts disjointed gibberish about the current law’s “confusion and imbalance in offenses involving the extreme indifference mental state in crimes resulting in death.” The declaration laughably asserts, “Colorado has become one of the most punitive states in the country” in that regard. 

The bill has exceptions, maybe to make it appear slightly less ridiculous. Killing a cop or a child — if the child is under 12 years old — still could be murder one. So could killing just one person — so long as the killer additionally “causes serious bodily injury to two or more persons by means of a deadly weapon.”

No, we are not making this up. In fact, we couldn’t. As spoof-worthy as the so-called justice reform movement might be, it’s no laughing matter. Indeed, it hurts too much to laugh.

The miscarriage of justice known as justice reform undeniably has cost Coloradans life and limb as well as their peace of mind as crime soared in recent years. Ushered in cavalierly by the legislature’s lopsided Democratic majority, the dogma has turned justice on its head. 

It has attempted to make cops into criminals — revoking, in 2020, their qualified immunity for acts performed in the line of duty. And it has endeavored to recast criminals as victims. 

Colorado’s soft-on-crime legislature has slashed sentencing, eased parole and loosened pre-trial release so convicts and suspects can walk the streets just like the rest of us — because, doggone it, they are as deserving as anybody else. The law-abiding just had luckier breaks in life, that’s all. Just ask any justice reformer.

In a definitive Perspective published in last Sunday’s Gazette, veteran 23rd Judicial District Attorney George Brauchler took a comprehensive look at the toll of justice reform on Colorado over the years. Brauchler observed, “Reclassifying and lowering the penalties for crimes and parole violations may reduce the number of felonies filed in court, and might reduce the number of felons returned to prison, but each makes us demonstrably less safe and creates numerous more victims. It is not justice.”

HB 26-1281 — sponsored by state Reps. Michael Carter, D-Aurora, and Cecelia Espenoza, D-Denver, and Sens. Mike Weissman, D-Aurora, and Nick Hinrichsen, D-Pueblo — is the tip of that spear. 

By itself, the bill merely would be absurd. But given the movement and mindset it represents, it has ominous implications for our eroding public safety — and the future of our justice system.