Colorado Felony

The Colorado Constitution names a felony as any offense where an offender can be sentenced to a state penitentiary. It also states that the court's authority to sentence an individual is statutory and only the General Assembly can authorize the suspension of any sentences.

The court has options in imposing sentences during the conviction of a felony. These include an imprisonment sentence with a mandatory parole period; a sentence to the Youth Offender System; a fine of anywhere from one hundred dollars or more; probation that can include intensive supervision, confinement in a county jail facility, home restitution, and detention; community corrections; and a suspended sentence.

Felony Classifications
Colorado places its felonies into varying classifications of severity. The first class that has the highest form of punishment is a Class 1 Felony. This felony is punishable by life in prison or death, both of which come without parole. A Class 2 Felony is punishable by as low as four years in prison and as much as forty-eight years in prison. This can also include a fine anywhere between five thousand dollars and one million dollars and has a mandatory parole period of five years.

Class 3 Felonies come with no less than two years in prison and no more than twenty-four years in prison. A fine between three thousand dollars and seven hundred fifty thousand dollars is also possible with a mandatory parole period of five years. Class 4 Felonies are punishable by no less than one year in prison and no more than twelve years in prison. A parole period of three years follows along with a possible fine between two thousand and five hundred thousand dollars.

A Class 5 Felony can carry up to six years in prison with a minimum of six months in prison. Two years of parole are mandatory with a possible fine between one thousand dollars and one hundred thousand dollars. The final class is the Class 6 Felony that can have sentences between six months and three years in a state prison. One year of parole is mandatory in Class 6 Felonies along with a possible fine between one thousand dollars and one hundred thousand dollars.

Colorado Felony Expungement
Even as expungement erases criminal records, it does not mean that the records disappear. These records are still available for civil use and general law enforcement purposes. Under exceptional situations, expunged records may be searched, used, or retrieved under court order in extraneous circumstances. Even as arrest records and conviction records may be expunged, other records that exist in the court -- civil lawsuits, judgments, and property deeds -- will not be affected by expungement.

Expungement legally erases criminal records and deems them legally erased. In juvenile circumstances a district attorney, local law enforcement agency, or the department of human services may have access to past records when under the circumstances of the United States military forces.

Only certain crimes can be expunged and include juvenile records or any crime as motioned by the court. Most often this includes crimes that have been acquitted or dismissed.