Colorado Politics: Colorado’s second-highest court clarified last month that defendants who are found not guilty by reason of insanity are eligible to have their criminal records sealed from public view.

Judges must seal criminal records if, among other things, a defendant is “acquitted of all counts” in a case. The question for the Court of Appeals was whether a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity functions as an “acquittal” for sealing purposes.

After prosecutors charged James Edward Papol in three separate El Paso County criminal cases in the mid-2000s, a judge found him not guilty by reason of insanity. Papol received psychiatric treatment through the state and was released from his commitment in 2021 to serve a different prison sentence.

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