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Thread: Colorado Capital Punishment News

  1. #11
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    Colorado asks pharmacies for lethal injection drug

    The Colorado Department of Corrections has asked pharmacies across the state for help securing a lethal injection drug so it will be prepared for what could be the state’s first execution in 15 years.

    The Denver Post reports (http://bit.ly/16qeWe0) DOC Director Tom Clements sent a letter to 97 compounding pharmacies Tuesday asking if they could acquire sodium thiopental or other equally or more effective drugs. The letter was prompted after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected appeals by Colorado’s longest serving death-row inmate, Nathan Dunlap.

    Dunlap, who killed four people at an Aurora Chuck E. Cheese restaurant in 1993, could become the first inmate executed in the state since 1997.

    Corrections officials have said they never stockpiled sodium thiopental because the state would’ve had to spend money to replenish the drugs each time they expire.

    http://www.gjsentinel.com/breaking/a...njection-drug/
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  2. #12
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    After 9 hours of testimony, Colorado House panel delays death penalty vote

    Whether the state of Colorado should be able to sentence people to die came to the forefront Tuesday afternoon as several dozen people crammed into a House committee room for more than nine hours of emotional testimony on a bill to repeal the death penalty.

    At the end of the night, the proposal was laid over until later in the session and no vote was taken.

    The measure, sponsored by Democratic Reps. Claire Levy of Boulder and Jovan Melton of Aurora, would repeal capital punishment in Colorado for offenses committed after July 1. House Bill 1264 is also co-sponsored by Rep. Kevin Priola, a Republican from Henderson.

    Lawmakers attempted to repeal the death penalty in 2009, but the attempt failed by a single vote.

    House Bill 1264 would not impact the three men already on Colorado's death row, or someone charged with a crime committed before the proposal became law. If passed, the death penalty would no longer be an option for prosecutors, only life in prison without the possibility of parole.

    The last person the state put to death was Gary Davis in 1997.

    A mixture of proponents, who donned purple ribbons, and opponents sat shoulder to shoulder Tuesday in the House Judiciary Committee room to relay messages on capital punishment that lasted late into the night.

    "When someone you love is murdered, it just smashes your soul," said El Paso County resident Amy Plapp, whose brother Steve was killed in a Texas apartment in 1993.

    At the time, prosecutors told Plapp that her brother's murder was not heinous enough to warrant the death penalty.

    "It didn't matter because another death would have been more damage for our family," she said. "It would have just been several more years of heartache we couldn't take."

    Plapp was among several victims' families,faith-based leaders and even a former death-row inmate who testified Tuesday in favor of the repeal measure, noting racial disparities, costs and the emotional toll as reasons they're against the death penalty.

    "You can release an innocent man from prison, but you cannot release him from the grave," said Randy Steidl in testimony. Steidl was on Illinois death row for 12 years before he was released from prison because a federal judge threw out his conviction because evidence was withheld in his trial.

    Meanwhile, Maisha Pollard, whose brother Javad was killed in 2005, said repeal of the death penalty is not something that should be left up to state lawmakers.

    "It's a decision that should be made by every victim who has had to sit in court. It's a decision that should be for every mother who has had to bury a child," said Pollard, the daughter of Rep. Rhonda Fields, D-Aurora.

    The debate over Colorado's death penalty is an issue that has divided Democratic lawmakers. Fields on Monday introduced a measure to have voters decide in 2014 whether to repeal the death penalty, which will be heard in a House committee Wednesday.

    "The citizens should weigh in on this," Fields said. "I don't personally believe this is up to lawmakers to decide."

    Arapahoe County District Attorney George Brauchler said the repeal of the death penalty makes it tougher to seek justice.

    "Repeal of the death penalty makes it harder to find justice for the worst-of-the-worst cases," Brauchler said.

    By April 1, his office must decide whether it will seek the death penalty against James Holmes, the man charged with killing 12 people and wounding 58 others in an Aurora movie theater in July.

    Rep. Bob Gardner, R-Colorado Springs, the ranking Republican on the judiciary committee, said he believes the repeal measure will pass through committee, but he called it a "wrongheaded" decision.

    "My problem is that the death penalty is simply appropriate," Gardner said. "For example, people serving life sentences who murder a corrections officer or a fellow prisoner, what do we do with those people? We have to have a deterrent for these people, and it's the death penalty."

    Gardner noted Colorado does not frequently impose capital punishment.

    "If we were in a state that does it frequently, then the criticism would be it's done excessively, and we should repeal the death penalty. Since we're in a state where it's done infrequently, the argument is, 'Well, we don't do it much, so we should repeal it,' " he said.

    Since 2007, five states — Connecticut, Illinois, New Mexico, New York and New Jersey — have repealed capital punishment, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Last week, legislators in Maryland voted to repeal the death penalty.

    http://www.denverpost.com/breakingne...-death-penalty
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  3. #13
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    Hickenlooper hints at veto of lawmakers' death-penalty repeal bill

    By Kurtis Lee and Lynn Bartels
    The Denver Post

    Gov. John Hickenlooper has let his fellow Democrats know he has issues with a bill that allows lawmakers to repeal Colorado's death penalty, mentioning a "veto" as the sponsors say they have the votes to get it passed.

    Hickenlooper on Tuesday spoke with House Democrats at their regular caucus luncheon in a building across the street from the Capitol one hour before a committee was scheduled to hear the death-penalty bill.

    Rep. Dan Pabon, D-Denver, said it was the first time he has heard the governor use the word "veto."

    "He did not say, 'I will definitely, undoubtedly with no question veto this,' " Pabon said. "But he did say that is something he is bouncing around. He used the 'v' word."

    Another Democrat, who asked not to be identified, said Hickenlooper told the caucus, "There are some things we're going to have to disagree on ... and those things we disagree on I'll have to veto."

    Rep. Lois Court of Denver, the House Democratic caucus chairwoman, said she was busy with the luncheon and missed some but not all of the governor's points.

    "He kind of said he thinks we need more public conversation," she said. "He wants to have more opportunities to ask the public for their input."

    The House Judiciary Committee heard the death penalty bill one hour after the luncheon on Tuesday, but took no official action.

    Some lawmakers said Hickenlooper's concerns could doom the measure.

    "It's no secret the governor has conflicting feelings about the death penalty," Hickenlooper's spokesman, Eric Brown, said by e-mail Wednesday. "Those feelings are still unresolved."

    When Hickenlooper ran for office in 2010, he answered a Denver Post question about whether the death penalty should be repealed by saying, "No, but it should be restricted."

    Late last year, though, Hickenlooper was less decisive about the death penalty.

    "I wrestle with this, right now, on a pretty much daily basis because we are in a position where we have a couple of death-row inmates that are going to come up, and I haven't come to a conclusion," he told The Associated Press.

    House Bill 1264 was laid over Tuesday night after nine hours of impassioned testimony by proponents and opponents. The measure would repeal capital punishment in Colorado for offenses committed after July 1.

    A date for when a final committee vote will occur on the measure has not been set.

    Rep. Claire Levy, D-Boulder, the bill's co-sponsor, said she's eager to move forward.

    "I have the votes in the House to pass the bill and it's not just partisan, it's bipartisan," Levy said Wednesday. The measure is co-sponsored by Republican Rep. Kevin Priola of Henderson.

    On Wednesday, another committee heard a separate death penalty measure by Rep. Rhonda Fields, D-Aurora. Her bill would have voters decide in 2014 whether to repeal the death penalty. It was laid over after a brief committee hearing.

    Fields opposes Levy's bill. Two of the three men currently on Colorado's death row — Sir Mario Owens and Robert Ray — were convicted of killing Fields' son in 2005.

    Neither Fields nor Levy's measures would impact those already on death row, or someone charged with a crime before they became law.

    The last person the state of Colorado put to death was Gary Davis in 1997.

    Nathan Dunlap, who murdered several people at an Aurora Chuck E. Cheese in 1993, could face execution as early as this year.

    http://www.denverpost.com/breakingne...penalty-repeal

  4. #14
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    House panel votes to kill death penalty repeal bill

    Two Democrats joined Republicans in opposing a measure to repeal the state’s death penalty today.

    Reps. Lois Court, D-Denver, and Brittany Pettersen, D-Lakewood, joined the four Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee in voting against HB1264, which would have repealed the state’s long-standing death penalty sentence in capital murder crimes.

    Court said she opposed the penalty, but voted against the bill after Gov. John Hickenlooper publicly said he didn’t think Colorado voters wanted the penalty repealed.

    Pettersen said she hadn’t made up her mind until recently whether she opposed or supported the idea, saying she ultimately came down against repeal because she doesn’t believe her constituents want it gone.

    Tomorrow, the House Local Government Committee will hear a bill to send the issue to the ballot, but that bill’s sponsor, Rep. Rhonda Fields, D-Aurora, has said she supports the penalty and only introduced her bill as an alternative to an outright repeal. As a result of today’s vote, she’s expected to ask for her own measure to be killed.

    http://www.gjsentinel.com/breaking/a...ty-repeal-bill

  5. #15
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    Second Colorado death penalty bill dies at sponsor's request

    By Lynn Bartels
    The Denver Post

    A day after a House committee rejected a bill to repeal the death penalty, state Rep. Rhonda Fields killed her own measure asking voters to decide in 2014 whether to abolish the death penalty.

    The Aurora Democrat admitted that her bill was a strategic counter to the proposal to abolish the death penalty.

    "I don't think the death penalty should be repealed," Fields said.

    Two of the three men sitting on Colorado's death row were convicted of killing Fields' son. Fields said she feared that if the bill to repeal the death penalty had succeeded, it would have given the governor and others motivation to commute the death sentences of her son's killers to life in prison.

    The House Local Government Committee, which Fields chairs, honored her request to kill House Bill 1270.

    "This is not something that will go away tomorrow or next year," said Rep. Jonathan Singer, D-Longmont. "We'll continue to struggle with this ethically and legislatively."

    One of the arguments against the death penalty is that it disproportionately impacts minorities, especially blacks. But Fields, who is black, said that line of reasoning doesn't sway her.

    "The death penalty has nothing to do with race," she said. "It has everything to do with murder and accountability for crimes committed."

    Her son, Javad Marshall-Fields, and his fiancée, Vivian Wolfe, were gunned down while driving in Aurora in 2005. The two were set to testify in a pending murder case. Sir Mario Owens and Robert Ray are both on Colorado's death row for their involvement in the murders.

    The third man on death row is Nathan Dunlap, who killed multiple people in an Aurora Chuck E. Cheese back in 1993. Dunlap is slated for execution later this year.

    The House Judiciary Committee voted 6-4 Tuesday to kill the bill repealing the death penalty. Rep. Claire Levy, D-Boulder, said she had the votes to pass House Bill 1264 out of committee and the House until Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper last week expressed his concerns about the bill, and brought up a veto.

    http://www.denverpost.com/breakingne...one?source=rss

  6. #16
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    Poll shows strong Colorado support for death penalty

    Colorado voters overwhelmingly back the death penalty and are evenly split on whether Gov. John Hickenlooper, who last month blocked the execution of a convicted multiple-murderer, deserves re-election, according to a new poll released Thursday.

    The Quinnipiac University poll said that 69 percent of the state’s voters think the death penalty should stay on the books while 24 percent want it replaced by life in prison without parole.

    The split is almost identical for those who disapprove of Hickenlooper’s decision to grant an indefinite reprieve to Nathan Dunlap, who killed four people at a Chuck E. Cheese in 1993 and was due to be executed in August. Nearly three-quarters of voters said the issue would be “very important” or “somewhat important” in their vote next year.

    Voters are divided, 45 percent to 44 percent, over whether Hickenlooper, a Democrat, deserves re-election. He narrowly leads his lone declared challenger, former Republican Rep. Tom Tancredo, 42-41. The poll suggested a tight race against other possible Republican challengers like Secretary of State Scott Gessler, whom Hickenlooper led 42-40, and state Sen. Greg Brophy, whom the governor leads 43-37.

    “By nearly 3-1, Colorado voters support the death penalty in their state and say where their elected officials stand on it could affect their vote,” said Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. “This could set up a high-voltage re-election campaign where the fate of a convicted murderer could help decide the fate of an incumbent governor.”

    Hickenlooper was a rare Democrat elected during the Republican wave year of 2010, and has positioned himself as a nonpartisan centrist. But he ended up in an increasingly partisan corner after Democrats retook the statehouse in November and muscled through a number of contentious measures, including a package of new gun control laws. That could be taking a toll on Hickenlooper’s ratings. The poll said 49 percent of voters disapprove of the Legislature and only 36 percent approve.

    Democrats have won the past three gubernatorial elections in Colorado. The state remains evenly split between Democrats, Republicans and independents. Republicans and independents overwhelmingly support the death penalty, by 87-11 and 73-21 margins, respectively, the poll suggested. Democrats support it more narrowly, 49-41.

    The poll indicated voters narrowly approve of Hickenlooper’s performance as governor, 47 percent to 43 percent. But the governor is struggling with independents. Only 44 percent approve while 47 percent disapprove.

    The poll of 1,065 registered voters was taken from June 5-11 with live telephone interviews on landlines and cellphones. It has a sampling error margin of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

    http://www.coloradoan.com/viewart/20...-death-penalty

  7. #17
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    Judge denies request for supplier of death penalty drugs

    A Denver judge ruled Thursday that the Colorado Department of Corrections does not have to reveal details of its efforts to obtain lethal injection chemicals.

    The American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado filed a lawsuit in May seeking to review a copy of the DOC's Execution Protocol, as well as any information about the department's efforts to obtain lethal injection chemicals.

    The lawsuit was filed before Gov. John Hickenlooper granted an extraordinary "temporary reprieve" for convicted killer Nathan Dunlap. Dunlap's execution was originally set for the week of Aug. 18, but the reprieve means Dunlap likely won't face execution while Hickenlooper is governor.

    Denver District Judge Michael Mullins ruled that the department must provide a redacted copy of the Execution Protocol. He said the department exercised an "abuse of discretion" when it refused to provide the ACLU a redacted copy.

    Mullins also ruled, however, that forcing the DOC to reveal which pharmacies may supply the drugs could raise safety concerns and possibly hurt their business. He also wrote that revealing the supplier of the drugs will not facilitate a public discussion about the death penalty.

    http://www.denverpost.com/breakingne...-penalty-drugs
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  8. #18
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    Colo. adds alternate drug for executions

    Colorado's instructions for putting prisoners to death by lethal injection have been revised to include an alternate drug, underscoring problems states face in carrying out executions, the American Civil Liberties Union said Friday.

    The ACLU released a copy of the state Department of Corrections execution protocol, which it obtained after filing a lawsuit against the department.

    The protocol, which was heavily redacted, included a list of 3 drugs to be used for executions, along with an alternate for 1 of the drugs, sodium pentothal.

    The protocol said pentobarbital can be used instead.

    That's a change from a 2011 version of the protocol, said Mark Silverstein, legal director for the ACLU in Colorado.

    "The change might reflect the difficulty the Department of Corrections was having in procuring the drug that they had listed earlier," he said.

    It also underscores the obstacles to carrying out executions that don't subject inmates to cruel and unusual punishment, Silverstein said.

    If prison personnel have problems getting enough of the 1st drug into an inmate's blood, the subsequent drugs can cause excruciating pain, he said.

    That raises other questions about the training and qualification of the execution team, he said.

    The ACLU opposes capital punishment.

    Department of Corrections spokeswoman Adrienne Jacobson said she couldn't confirm whether the execution protocol had changed since 2011, but she acknowledged sodium pentothal has become difficult to get.

    She said state law allows the use of an alternate that's as effective or more effective than sodium pentothal. She said a federal appeals court has upheld the use of pentobarbital, the alternate drug on Colorado's list, for use in executions.

    Colorado's death penalty came under scrutiny this year when it appeared that Nathan Dunlap, convicted of the 1993 slayings of 4 people in a pizza restaurant, would be executed. But Gov. John Hickenlooper granted Dunlap an indefinite reprieve, citing questions about the fairness of the death penalty in Colorado and problems in acquiring the lethal drugs.

    (Source: The Associated Press)
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  9. #19
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    Hickenlooper death-penalty decision inspires GOP bill on reprieves

    By Lynn Bartels
    The Denver Post

    Gov. John Hickenlooper infuriated some Coloradans when he granted an indefinite reprieve to death row inmate Nathan Dunlap, among them an Arvada lawmaker who wants to make sure it never happens again.

    Republican Rep. Libby Szabo has proposed limiting reprieves in death penalty cases to 90 days and only if "administrative difficulties arise" in carrying out an execution.

    "I believe that the victims, the families, deserve justice," she said.

    But the governor's chief legal counsel, Jack Finlaw, said her proposal is unconstitutional.

    "It attempts to place restrictions around the governor's authority to grant a reprieve in a capital case," Finlaw said Thursday. "The state constitution does not grant the General Assembly the authority to so limit a governor's executive power."

    Szabo admitted that House Bill 1197 doesn't stand a chance; it is scheduled to be heard Monday by the so-called "kill" committee.

    Even if it were to pass, it would have no impact on the Dunlap case.

    Dunlap killed four people and wounded a fifth at an Aurora pizzeria in 1993. Hickenlooper stunned Coloradans when he announced the reprieve, instead of allowing the execution to continue or commuting Dunlap's sentence to life in prison. Critics said Hickenlooper couldn't make tough decisions.

    http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_25...#ixzz2u2twl8hm

  10. #20
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    Colorado death penalty curbs rejected by lawmakers

    Colorado lawmakers have rejected a GOP proposal to curb the governor's ability to grant reprieves to death row inmates.

    A bill considered Monday was inspired by the indefinite reprieve issued last year by Gov. John Hickenlooper.

    The Democrat granted the reprieve for Nathan Dunlap, who killed four people at an Aurora pizzeria in 1993.

    Republican Rep. Libby Szabo suggested a bill to give governors just 90 days for any death-penalty reprieve. A Democratic committee rejected the proposal 6-3 on Monday.

    The vote came on the same day that the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal by another man on Colorado's death row seeking to unseal records in his case.

    http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_25...#ixzz2uHyn5FM2
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