Richard L. Gabriel

Richard L. Gabriel (born March 3, 1962) was an American lawyer and judge, who is an associate justice of the Colorado Supreme Court. He previously served on the Colorado Court of Appeals from 2008 to 2015. He received a Bachelor of Arts in American studies in 1984 at Yale University, and received a Juris Doctor in 1987 at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he was articles editor for the University of Pennsylvania Law Review from 1986 to 1987.

Gabriel specialized in business law, including commercial litigation and intellectual property law.

Judicial service Colorado Governor Bill Ritter announced in May 2008 that Gabriel would be appointed to the Colorado Court of Appeals, and he was sworn in as a judge on June 30. He was retained in a retention election in November 2010, winning 65.9 per cent of the vote.

In March 2015, Justice Gregory J. Hobbs Jr. announced that he would retire effective from September 1, 2015. The Colorado Judicial Nominating Commission selected Gabriel as one of three possible candidates to replace Hobbs. The other two candidates were University of Colorado Law School professor Melissa Hart and El Paso County District Court Judge David Prince.

In May 2017, Justice Gabriel concurred in judgment when finding that imposing an eighty-four year sentence on a fifteen-year-old murderer did not violate the Constitution’s Eighth Amendment prohibition on sentencing juveniles to life without parole because the child might live through the end of his sentence.

Gabriel was retained by voters in a 2018 retention election.