District Court Judge David Thorson

The judge who will hear the most current challenge to the state's Lifetime Act has been on the bench here for over 20 years and is no stranger to the indeterminate controversy.

Since 1998 when the sentence was enacted the 11th Judicial District has had some of the highest incarceration rates under the statute in the state. However, over 83 percent of those lifetime sentences where handed down by Thompson's colleague Judge Julie Marshall, known by defense attorneys in the county as "the hanging judge of Canon City."

By contrast, in the last five years, Thorson has used the lifetime prison term less than 6 percent of the time. During his rulings from the bench Thorson often voices dissatisfaction with the Lifetime Act and about using the indeterminate sentence, likening it to a death-sentence.

With this latest filing Thorson has a chance, if he wanted one, to finally bring the Lifetime Act under control and stop the unintended endless incarceration of thousands of Colorado citizens.