republic-os/legislation/us/states/co/2025a/sb-25-189.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Require Jury to Determine Prior Convictions"
description: "Under existing law, a person convicted of certain prior offenses may be adjudged a habitual criminal and subject to enhanced sentencing. The act requires a jury, in a habitual proceeding that is separate from the trial of the charged substantive offense and for the purpose of determining whether the defendant is a habitual criminal, to determine whether the defendant has been previously convicted as alleged, whether the convictions were separately brought and tried, and whether the convictions arose out of separate and distinct criminal episodes. The habitual proceeding must be conducted before the same jury impaneled to try the substantive offense; except that, when necessary and as constitutionally permissible, a new jury may be impaneled. If a new jury is impaneled, the court shall hold the habitual proceeding as soon as practicable."
jurisdiction: "us/states/co"
legislature: "Colorado General Assembly"
session: "2025A"
identifier: "SB 25-189"
citation: "Colorado SB 25-189 (2025A)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Cecelia Espenoza", "Larry Liston", "Marc Snyder", "Matt Soper"]
version_count: 10
action_count: 16
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2025-03-03T07:00:00+00:00"
last_action: "2025-06-02T06:00:00+00:00"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/e5063830-d370-420f-8d65-28fc4085d2d0"
source_url: "https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/sb25-189"
source_hash: "47a782627de07eace55fda45814be72cfe5d930154e2d21a4432f94b7fef79b5"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-co"]
---

# Colorado SB 25-189 (2025A) — Require Jury to Determine Prior Convictions

Under existing law, a person convicted of certain prior offenses may be adjudged a habitual criminal and subject to enhanced sentencing. The act requires a jury, in a habitual proceeding that is separate from the trial of the charged substantive offense and for the purpose of determining whether the defendant is a habitual criminal, to determine whether the defendant has been previously convicted as alleged, whether the convictions were separately brought and tried, and whether the convictions arose out of separate and distinct criminal episodes. The habitual proceeding must be conducted before the same jury impaneled to try the substantive offense; except that, when necessary and as constitutionally permissible, a new jury may be impaneled. If a new jury is impaneled, the court shall hold the habitual proceeding as soon as practicable.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Committee Amendment** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/2025a_sb189_h_app_002.pdf)
2. **Engrossed (04/15/2025)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2025A/bills/2025a_189_eng.pdf)
3. **Final Act (05/12/2025)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2025A/bills/2025a_189_enr.pdf)
4. **Introduced (03/03/2025)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2025A/bills/2025a_189_01.pdf)
5. **PA1 (03/27/2025)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2025A/bills/2025a_189_s_jud_01.pdf)
6. **PA2 (04/11/2025)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2025A/bills/2025a_189_s_jud_app_01.pdf)
7. **Reengrossed (04/17/2025)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2025A/bills/2025a_189_ren.pdf)
8. **Rerevised (05/05/2025)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2025A/bills/2025a_189_rer.pdf)
9. **Revised (05/03/2025)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2025A/bills/2025a_189_rev.pdf)
10. **Signed Act (06/02/2025)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/2025a_189_signed.pdf)

## Votes

- BILL — **32–3** (pass) · upper
- BILL — **64–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Cecelia Espenoza — primary (person)
- Larry Liston — primary (person)
- Marc Snyder — primary (person)
- Matt Soper — primary (person)
- M. Carter — cosponsor (person)
- M. Duran — cosponsor (person)
- M. Froelich — cosponsor (person)
- S. Woodrow — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2025-06-02T06:00:00+00:00** Governor Signed `executive-signature`
- **2025-05-12T06:00:00+00:00** Signed by the Speaker of the House
- **2025-05-12T06:00:00+00:00** Sent to the Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2025-05-12T06:00:00+00:00** Signed by the President of the Senate
- **2025-05-05T06:00:00+00:00** House Third Reading Passed - No Amendments `passage, reading-3`
- **2025-05-03T06:00:00+00:00** House Second Reading Special Order - Passed - No Amendments
- **2025-05-03T06:00:00+00:00** House Committee on Appropriations Refer Unamended to House Committee of the Whole `committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2025-04-30T06:00:00+00:00** House Committee on Judiciary Refer Unamended to Appropriations `referral-committee`
- **2025-04-17T06:00:00+00:00** Introduced In House - Assigned to Judiciary `introduction`
- **2025-04-17T06:00:00+00:00** Senate Third Reading Passed - No Amendments `passage, reading-3`
- **2025-04-16T06:00:00+00:00** Senate Third Reading Laid Over Daily - No Amendments
- **2025-04-15T06:00:00+00:00** Senate Second Reading Passed with Amendments - Committee, Floor `reading-2`
- **2025-04-11T06:00:00+00:00** Senate Committee on Appropriations Refer Amended to Senate Committee of the Whole `committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2025-03-26T06:00:00+00:00** Senate Committee on Judiciary Refer Amended to Appropriations `referral-committee`
- **2025-03-17T06:00:00+00:00** Senate Committee on Judiciary Lay Over Unamended - Amendment(s) Failed
- **2025-03-03T07:00:00+00:00** Introduced In Senate - Assigned to Judiciary `introduction`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/e5063830-d370-420f-8d65-28fc4085d2d0`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Colorado legislature records).