Page 4 of 12 FirstFirst ... 23456 ... LastLast
Results 31 to 40 of 120

Thread: Colorado Capital Punishment News

  1. #31
    Senior Member Member Big Jon's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2015
    Posts
    120
    Perhaps this will show up in a ballot down the road. This should be left up to the people of Colorado to decide the fate of the DP and I believe the DP would stay in place if a vote was taken today.

  2. #32
    Senior Member Member Big Jon's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2015
    Posts
    120
    CO lawmakers push for easier death penalty

    DENVER — A group of state lawmakers wants to make it easier to impose the death penalty in Colorado by dropping the state’s requirement for a unanimous jury verdict to reach a death sentence.

    Originating in the GOP-controlled Senate, SB 64 is sponsored by six Republican senators and no Democrats.

    The bill would allow the death penalty to be imposed if 9 out of 12 jurors vote in favor of death.

    Sponsors told 9NEWS the effort is a direct response to the Aurora theater shooting trial, which resulted in a sentence of life because not all of the jurors voted for death, as well as a similar outcome in a Denver case involving multiple murders at Fero’s bar in Denver.

    “I believe there is an appropriateness for the death penalty for the worst of crimes, but it has to be set up in such a way that it can occur,” said Sen. Kevin Lundberg (R-Berthoud.) “The unanimous opinion has become too high a bar. So, I believe three-quarters of the jury should be sufficient.”

    The idea of sentencing a convict to death without a unanimous jury is not unprecedented in today’s legal system. According to the American Bar Association, of the 32 state with capital punishment—three allow the death penalty without a unanimous jury verdict: Alabama, Delaware, and Florida.

    Still, the prospects for the bill are dim under the current balance of power in Colorado’s legislature. The House is controlled by Democrats, many (but not all) of whom would like to do away with the death penalty.

    “[The death penalty] really is an archaic practice that needs to go away,” said Rep. Jovan Melton (D-Aurora) “By reducing the threshold and making it easier, we’re just doing the wrong thing.”

    Gov. John Hickenlooper’s office could not promise whether such a bill would be vetoed, but it’s worth remembering that the governor told 9NEWS during his re-election campaign that he would be willing to sign a repeal of the death sentence if it ever landed on his desk.

    In the House, the Republican minority is also working on a different approach to make the death penalty easier. They're drafting a bill that would allow a second jury to decide the question of life or death, if the first jury isn’t unanimous.

    http://www.9news.com/story/news/loca...alty/79024456/

    Link to legislation: http://www.leg.state.co.us/CLICS/CLI...ile=064_01.pdf
    Last edited by Big Jon; 01-26-2016 at 06:16 PM.

  3. #33
    Moderator Ryan's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2013
    Location
    Newport, United Kingdom
    Posts
    2,454
    Colorado bill would allow death sentence without unanimous vote

    By Jordan Steffen
    The Denver Post

    Five months after two of Colorado's most notorious mass murderers received life sentences, lawmakers are considering legislation that would toss the requirement that death sentences be unanimous.

    The bill would allow a death sentence if at least nine of the 12 jurors vote for it. Removing the requirement would put Colorado in the minority of states — there are only three — that allow for non-unanimous verdicts in capital cases.

    A unanimous vote would still be required to convict someone of a crime.

    Sen. Kevin Lundberg, R-Berthoud, said he is sponsoring the bill because he "wants to save lives" and have a penalty "that will cause the bad guy to think twice before they pull the trigger."

    "Colorado has a death penalty sentence on the books. But in reality, I think we have set the bar so high through the process that it's impossible to actually garner a conviction in cases where it is so obviously deserving of the death penalty."

    But critics peg the legislation — which could still be amended — as an effort to make it easier to obtain a death sentence.

    "We require the prosecution to prove beyond a reasonable doubt all criminal charges to a unanimous jury," said Colorado public defender Doug Wilson. "So (under the proposed bill) someone charged with shoplifting would get a unanimous jury, and yet when we decide we want to execute one of our citizens, we would leave it to a jury of less than 12."

    Rarely used in Colorado, the death penalty was center stage last summer as prosecutors sought the punishment for two men convicted of two devastating crimes. The trials of James Holmes and Dexter Lewis stretched on for weeks and months but ultimately ended in life sentences for each.

    Holmes, who was convicted of killing 12 people and wounding 70 inside an Aurora movie theater in July 2012, was sentenced to life during the final phase of sentencing, in which three jurors did not vote for a death sentence.

    Shortly after, during the second phase of Lewis' death penalty hearing, at least one member of a Denver jury found that the details of his life suggested mercy outweighed the details of the crime that suggested death. Lewis, who was convicted of stabbing five people to death in a bar in 2012, also was sentenced to life in prison.

    Currently in Colorado, juries must have unanimous verdicts in each of the three phases of a death penalty sentencing hearing. Under the measure, a minimum of nine jurors would be required to move through the first two phases and to hand down a death sentence.

    Death penalty laws in Alabama, Delaware and Florida allow jurors to hand down or recommend a death sentence without unanimity. In January, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down part of Florida's sentencing process that required judges — not juries — to make critical findings and gave judges the ability to disregard a jury's recommendation.

    The high court has not directly addressed unanimity requirements in death penalty cases, but Florida lawmakers are considering legislation that would make unanimous verdicts mandatory.

    "I'm not gauging my decision on what other states have said. I'm gauging my decision on what I have observed in Colorado," Lundberg said, referring to the Holmes case. "That proves that our system is inadequate."

    Wilson said the legislation would violate defendants' rights and encourage prosecutors to file more death penalty cases.

    But Arapahoe County District Attorney George Brauchler, who prosecuted Holmes, said the proposed change would not increase filings. It would foster a much-needed conversation about the death penalty, he said.

    "What I would be in favor of is having a conversation about the status of the death penalty in the state of Colorado," Brauchler said.

    Denver District Attorney Mitchell Morrissey, however, cautioned that, as it's currently written, the legislation could cause the state to repeat a previous mistake.

    In 1995, Colorado briefly switched to a controversial law that allowed a three-judge panel, instead of a unanimous jury, to sentence a defendant to death. After that system was found to be unconstitutional and the state returned to unanimous juries in 2003, a handful of cases that ended in death sentences churned in litigation for years.

    Morrissey saw the pressure and stress those cases placed on victims and warns against passing a law that could cause the same result.

    "Why wade into this area when you have a statute that works, that's been upheld?" Morrissey said.

    The bill is scheduled to go before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.

    http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_29...hout-unanimous

  4. #34
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    Germany
    Posts
    13,014
    Attempt to allow 'death penalty phase' retrial in class 1 felony cases dies in committee

    DENVER - A bill that would have allowed a second jury to “retry” the aggravation and penalty phases of a death penalty case, in the event the original jury couldn't reach a unanimous verdict, died in committee Monday afternoon.

    Death penalty advocates say it’s an issue that could still end up before voters.

    House Bill 16-1233, sponsored by Rep. Kim Ransom, R-Douglas County, would have changed the sentencing process for class 1 felonies when the death penalty is being sought.

    It would have created an aggravation phase requiring the prosecution to prove one or more aggravating circumstances beyond a reasonable doubt.

    It would have also created a penalty phase where the defendant had the burden to prove one or more mitigating circumstances by a preponderance of evidence, with the jury determining unanimously whether the mitigating circumstances call for leniency.

    If jurors couldn’t reach a unanimous verdict, the bill established a procedure for a (single) retrial of the aggravation and penalty phases.

    18th Judicial District Attorney George Brauchler said the bill would have “put us closer” to getting a realistic shot at justice.

    “In the State of Colorado, we have an extra step that no one else has,” Brauchler said. “Jurors can substitute their own individual, reasoned moral judgment for any factual or legal findings they previously found. This is a bill that says, ‘listen, if we’re going to have such a subjective, different situation to get through, one person shouldn’t be allowed to hang up the process.’”

    The DA was referring to the theater shooting case where jurors determined that James Holmes was guilty of multiple counts of First Degree Murder and that there were multiple aggravating factors, but still one juror held out against the death penalty.

    But opponents of the bill said allowing a second jury to come in and retry the aggravation and penalty phase would have disrespected the original jury’s overall decision.

    “We shouldn’t basically say, ‘well, you didn’t reach the right verdict, so we’re going to throw out your decision,’” said Peter Severson of the Lutheran Advocacy Ministry of Colorado. “Our belief, as a church, is that it should not be easier to reach a death penalty verdict. The system we have in place is there for a reason. We should respect the conscientious decision of those jurors.”

    One of the jurors in the Holmes case feels otherwise.

    “I gave four months of my life to that case,” she said. “It came down to one person overruling the others. That shouldn’t be the end of it," she said.

    But there wasn’t enough support in the House State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee to make the change. Lawmakers voted 6 to 3 to postpone the bill indefinitely.

    http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news...s-in-committee

  5. #35
    Senior Member Member Big Jon's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2015
    Posts
    120
    Guess we Coloradoans will have to get out and vote.

  6. #36
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    Germany
    Posts
    13,014
    Colorado law to speed up death penalty is failing, advocates on both sides say

    “Unitary” appeal system was supposed to resolve Colorado state court litigation within two years

    By JOHN INGOLD
    The Denver Post

    Colorado’s only two death penalty appeals are stuck at a standstill, and now advocates on both sides of the justice system say that a law passed nearly two decades ago to speed up such appeals is failing.

    In 1997, Colorado lawmakers frustrated with the slow pace of executions in the state passed a bill they thought would fix it. By putting the most time-consuming part of capital punishment appeals first and setting tight deadlines, the goal was to resolve all litigation in state court within two years of a death sentence being imposed.

    Instead, the first two appeals to test the process — those for convicted murderers Sir Mario Owens and Robert Ray — have stalled at that initial step for more than seven years after the sentences were issued. The murders that brought the death sentences occurred 11 years ago this summer.

    And with both cases in turmoil — Ray’s attorneys recently tried to withdraw from the appeal over a dispute with a judge, while Owens’ attorneys say they are being improperly denied information about why their judge was fired — the delays look set to continue for months or years more.

    The gridlock has even the sponsor of the 1997 bill wondering whether something about the death penalty in Colorado has to change.

    “I’m almost to the point where I would say, ‘Let’s do away with it and save the taxpayers the money,’ ” said Jeanne Adkins, a former state representative from Douglas County.

    In any death penalty case, deciding the sentence is usually the quick part. What follows the jury’s verdict is a trail of appeals that reaches all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and back.

    Those on death row in Colorado are guaranteed two appeals in state court: the “direct appeal,” which challenges the integrity of the trial, and the “post-conviction appeal,” in which defendants introduce new evidence or raise claims of prosecutorial misconduct or incompetent representation. Prior to 1997, the direct appeal went first followed by the post-conviction appeal.

    But, because the post-conviction appeal is the lengthier of the two, lawmakers in 1997 flipped the order. Now, after a lower-court judge issues an initial ruling on the post-conviction appeal, the two appeals then move in tandem to the Colorado Supreme Court — in what’s been dubbed a “unitary” system. (Appeals that take place in federal court, after all the state-court appeals finish, are another matter.)

    The law says all post-conviction proceedings in state court “shall be completed within two years after the date upon which the sentence of death is imposed.”

    “There shall be no extensions of time of any kind beyond the two-year period,” the law states.

    Except the Colorado Supreme Court ruled in 2010 that’s not exactly true. Instead, the justices concluded the law allows them to adopt rules granting extensions, “upon a showing of extraordinary circumstances that could not have been foreseen and prevented.”

    That’s an important wrinkle, said Denver defense attorney Christopher Decker, because it provides necessary safeguards for a defendant’s constitutional rights.

    “If they just speed up the process and strip everyone of due process, we’ll have a very fast outcome that will be worth nothing,” said Decker, who is not involved in either appeal. “It won’t stand up to constitutional review.”

    But that’s also what has allowed Owens’ and Ray’s appeals to linger for years in state court without resolution. Ray’s post-conviction hearings haven’t even started yet in Arapahoe County District Court. Owens’ hearings could have to be completely redone after the senior judge presiding over the case was fired as he was about to issue his final order.

    “Two years may have been unrealistic,” said Tom Raynes, the executive director of the Colorado District Attorneys’ Council. “But eight years to not even get halfway there is absurd.”

    Raynes said the legislature might now need to rewrite the unitary appeal statute. Decker said other constitutional concerns — once briefly the subject of a lawsuit — could doom it altogether. And Adkins, once the biggest champion of the idea, is pessimistic about whether lawmakers can do anything.

    “The death penalty has become so politicized, truthfully, in the last decade or so in Colorado that I really think that a lot of what the legislature tried to do may actually be pretty pointless now,” she said.

    One of the lawmakers who could have a say on this, though, is one of the people mostly deeply affected by the delays. State Rep. Rhonda Fields’ son, Javad Marshall-Fields, was one of two people killed — along with his fiancée, Vivian Wolfe — in the murders that put Owens and Ray on death row. The wait for justice has been excruciating, she said. But she’s optimistic there is a solution.

    “I think there’s got to be something that we can do to protect the rights of the victims and protect the rights of the defendants,” she said, “that’s not dragging things out for 11 years.”

    http://www.denverpost.com/2016/07/25...y-law-failing/

  7. #37
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    Germany
    Posts
    13,014
    Advocates for repealing the Colorado death penalty will be back before the legislature

    Advocates for repealing the death penalty in Colorado are back with a legislative effort for the first time in four years, motivated by their belief the issue is gaining traction in battleground and red states.

    But proponents still face an uphill battle in the legislature.

    The Better Priorities Initiative of Colorado hopes to build off of work in the right-leaning state of Nebraska, where the legislature there repealed the death penalty in 2015, despite opposition led by Republican Gov. Pete Ricketts.

    The Nebraska legislature repealed the death penalty over the governor's veto, becoming the first conservative state in more than four decades to abolish the death penalty.

    But Nebraska voters in November reinstated the state's policy on capital punishment, with 61 percent voting to "repeal the repeal."

    Still, supporters of abolishing the death penalty in Colorado say the action by the Nebraska legislature offers hope that Colorado lawmakers can cross party lines to advance a repeal.

    A bill from Senate Democratic Leader Lucia Guzman of Denver is expected to be introduced as early as Wednesday.

    "We've seen a renewed energy around ending the death penalty," said Stacy Anderson, outreach director for the Better Priorities Initiative of Colorado, who helped run the repeal effort in Nebraska. "It's definitely shifting to be more of a Western states movement."

    The Nevada legislature this year is expected to take up a bill that would make the state's maximum punishment life in prison without parole. And Utah is expected to take up the issue again this year after a repeal bill failed on the last day of the legislative session last year. Washington state also is working on a bipartisan effort to abolish the death penalty.

    Efforts to repeal in Colorado have failed in the past, including in 2013, when Democrats controlled the legislature. This year the legislature is split.

    It's also unclear where Gov. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat, stands on abolishing the death penalty.

    In 2013, the governor expressed "conflicting feelings" and upset some by granting a stay of execution to Nathan Dunlap, who was convicted of murder for the 1993 deaths of four people at an Aurora Chuck E. Cheese.

    In 2014, Hickenlooper outlined his reasons for opposing the death penalty, which opened him up to attacks from Republicans as he headed into re-election. But he has never pushed to abolish capital punishment in the state.

    Last year, Republican lawmakers attempted to make it easier to impose the death penalty by requiring only nine out of 12 members of a jury to deliver capital punishment. Current law requires a unanimous agreement. Supporters of the bill attempted to compromise by requiring 11 of the 12 jurors to agree, but that effort also failed, with the vote crossing party lines.

    Repealing the death penalty in Colorado would be a major victory for supporters, especially given high-profile cases. Jurors in Arapahoe County could not unanimously agree to sentence the 2012 Aurora movie theater gunman to die by lethal injection.

    George Brauchler, the Arapahoe County prosecutor who sought the death penalty in the Aurora movie theater case, said a judicial issue as important as capital punishment should not be left to the legislature.

    "This is an issue for the people of the state of Colorado to decide," Brauchler said, suggesting that it would be better to refer the question to voters.

    The Better Priorities Initiative of Colorado - which is pushing the repeal effort this year - said they have no immediate plans for a ballot drive.

    The coalition consists of many of the usual groups that fight capital punishment, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Religious organizations also are part of the coalition.

    Anderson said she expects the coalition to have bipartisan support, with Republicans speaking out against the death penalty as well.

    One of the talking points used by repeal advocates is that capital punishment is an expensive burden on taxpayers, though detailed costs have not been recently researched in Colorado. Some estimates put the cost between $5 million and $10 million per year thanks to the need for extensive legal work.

    The last time someone was executed in Colorado was in 1997.

    "We're wasting millions of dollars on a punishment we don't use, and arguably, that most Coloradans have lost interest in," Anderson said. "There are things that we could be spending our money on that could make us all safer and actually be more effective for all Coloradans."

    Brauchler, however, questions whether seeking capital punishment actually costs millions, or if there would be much of a savings to taxpayers if it were repealed.

    "They want to suggest that if we didn't have the death penalty, we wouldn't have had the cost, but what is ignorant about that analysis is if you take the death penalty away, and God forbid something like the Aurora theater shooting happened tomorrow, you think the public defender's office is going to come in and say, 'Well, we're ready to plead guilty and go to prison forever,'" Brauchler asked.

    "No. We're going to have the exact same trial, minus the sentencing phase for the death penalty, and that exact same expense."

    http://gazette.com/advocates-for-rep...rticle/1594617

  8. #38
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Location
    Toronto, Ontario, Canada
    Posts
    20,875
    Democrats launch effort to repeal death penalty in Colorado

    Effort won't affect those currently on death row

    By Lance Hernandez
    The Denver Channel

    DENVER -- Colorado lawmakers are getting ready to put the death penalty to rest once and for all.

    Senate Minority Leader Lucia Guzman, D-Denver, introduced a bill late Wednesday to repeal capital punishment. Her proposal, SB17-095, would repeal the death penalty for offenses on or after July 1, 2017.

    "Nothing in this section commutes or alters the sentence of a defendant convicted of an offense committed before July 1, 2017," the bill reads.

    Stacy Anderson, of Better Priorities Initiative of Colorado, the group spearheading the repeal effort, said money is the big reason behind it all.

    "We're spending an enormous amount of money on the death penalty and victim's services are falling by the wayside," she said. "If we could provide money for all victims to have the services they need, that would be better justice for all Coloradans."

    Anderson told Denver7 that fewer prosecutors are seeking the death penalty and that fewer juries are deciding to impose it.

    "We had two really high profile cases, (Aurora Theater shootings and Fero's Bar and Grill stabbings) really awful murders, and jurors were not willing to give death penalty sentences in those cases," she said.

    There are three men currently on death row.

    • Nathan Dunlap murdered four people during a robbery at a Chuck E Cheese restaurant in Aurora.
    • Sir Mario Owens shot and killed two people. One of them was a witness who was going to testify in another murder case. The other victim was the witnesses' fiancé.
    • Robert Ray ordered the killing of that witness.

    Last Execution

    Gary Davis was the last person executed in Colorado.

    He was put to death in October of 1997 for the 1986 kidnapping, rape and murder of a Byer's area housewife.

    He shot the victim 14 times.

    Thirty-two states still have the death penalty. Eighteen states have repealed it.

    Four states, including Colorado, have moratoriums on the death penalty. Their governors will not sign death warrants.

    http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news...ty-in-colorado
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  9. #39
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2015
    Location
    Pennsylvania
    Posts
    4,795
    TOTAL SHOCKER READERS WONT BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

    Colorado bill eliminating death penalty fails on party-line vote as emotions run high

    An effort to eliminate the death penalty in Colorado was rejected by a legislative committee Wednesday night after an emotional hearing.

    The effort from Senate Democratic Leader Lucia Guzman failed on a party-line vote, with Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee opposing the proposal.

    The hearing included tear-jerking testimony from people who lost loved ones to murder, who said they found solace in the justice of capital punishment.

    But Guzman offered her own perspective as a victim, having lost her father to murder more than 40 years ago. While her father was working at a service station, there was a robbery over $7 and some change. His skull was smashed with a wrench, and parts of it were found strewn across the floor.

    It was always infuriating to Guzman that the man who was arrested was charged with manslaughter; not murder or robbery. But she said she never wished for the man who murdered her father to be sentenced to death, despite what she perceived as a light sentence.

    "I want you to know that I'm a victim also," Guzman said. "I'm here tonight as a victim and as a victim advocate. I'm also here as someone who does not believe that we should be a society that kills people who kill people."

    Senate Bill 95 was originally thought to fail with bipartisan opposition. But Sen. Rhonda Fields, D-Aurora, asked to be replaced on the committee because she felt too connected to the subject this year. She was replaced by Sen. Irene Aguilar, D-Denver, who supported the measure.

    Fields' son was murdered by two men sitting on death row. Javad Marshall-Fields and his fiancée, Vivian Wolfe, were gunned down in 2005 as the two were expected to testify in a pending murder case.

    Sir Mario Owens and Robert Ray were both sentenced to death for their involvement in the murders, though they are moving through lengthy appeals steps. Fields said she didn't want to interfere with the continuing judicial process.

    Her daughter, Maisha Fields, testified at the hearing Wednesday night, pointing out that the two men who killed her brother had already been sentenced to what amounted to life in prison for their role in another case.

    "We were able to get justice - justice for Javad and Vivian. The only punishment that was available at that time, because the defendants were already serving a life sentence, was death," Maisha Fields said.

    "I'm ashamed that we're here today because I feel as if all the hard work that the 12 jurors have done, the police department, and that the life that my brother and his girlfriend Vivian lived, will be in vain . Have the political courage to say 'no.'"

    Lawmakers addressed the issue of repealing the death penalty for the first time in four years. Two efforts in the Democratic-controlled legislature in 2013 failed, one of which was sponsored by Fields. She said her opinion on the death penalty has "matured," though she still supports it.

    A group has formed, the Better Priorities Initiative of Colorado, which is pushing a repeal. There are no current plans for a ballot measure, though that could change.

    The group is building off of an effort in Nebraska, where proponents of overturning the death penalty believe they made significant progress. The Nebraska legislature repealed the death penalty in 2015 despite opposition led by Republican Gov. Pete Ricketts.

    The success, however, was short-lived, as Nebraska voters in November reinstated the state's policy on capital punishment, with 61 percent voting to "repeal the repeal."

    But given success in the legislature of the Republican state, proponents of a repeal believe there is a way to reach bipartisan consensus in Colorado as well.

    High-profile cases have thrust Colorado into the spotlight, including jurors in Arapahoe County who could not unanimously agree to sentence the 2012 Aurora movie theater gunman to die by lethal injection. Gov. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat, also upset some by granting a stay of execution to Nathan Dunlap, who was convicted of murder for the 1993 deaths of four people at an Aurora Chuck E. Cheese.

    The governor's stance on the death penalty has evolved. In 2014, Hickenlooper outlined his reasons for opposing the death penalty, which opened him up to attacks from Republicans as he headed into re-election.

    Critics of the death penalty point to costs, with some estimates placing it between $5 million and $10 million per year thanks to the need for extensive legal work.

    The last time someone was executed in Colorado was in 1997. There are three people sitting on death row in the state.

    Opponents of the death penalty also point to an inequity, highlighting that a gruesome crime committed in one jurisdiction could lead to capital punishment, but the same horrible crime in another district might not because of the discretion of prosecutors. At least two district attorneys, for Denver and Boulder, have expressed concerns with capital punishment.

    Faith leaders held a news conference ahead of the hearing on Wednesday to express support for eliminating the death penalty. They feel capital punishment goes against religious values that support life over death.

    But George Brauchler, the Arapahoe County prosecutor who sought the death penalty in the Aurora movie theater case, said the reason prosecutors use their discretion is because sometimes crimes are elevated to a higher status.

    "The death penalty exists because not all murders are the same," said Brauchler, who is considering a run for governor in 2018. "If we're going to try to seek justice, what we try to do is distinguish, as much as we can, one person from another."

    http://gazette.com/colorado-bill-eli...rticle/1596943
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  10. #40
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Location
    Toronto, Ontario, Canada
    Posts
    20,875
    Gardner Comments on Defeat of Death Penalty Repeal

    By Sean Paige
    Colorado Senate Republicans

    Denver — Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Gardner (R-Colorado Springs) released the following statement tonight following defeat of a measure (Senate Bill-95) that would have repealed the death penalty in Colorado:

    "Tonight, Senate Republicans stood with crime victims and the people of Colorado in supporting the death penalty, by defeating Senate Bill 95. Senate Bill 95 would have abolished a criminal penalty that helps deter crime and keep our communities safe, according to what police and prosecutors tell us. Coloradans support the death penalty and we stand with our communities."


    http://www.coloradosenaterepublicans...penalty_repeal
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

Page 4 of 12 FirstFirst ... 23456 ... LastLast

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Tags for this Thread

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •