[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----COLO., NEV., CALIF., ORE.
March 6 COLORADO: Colorado Democrats introduce bill to abolish capital punishmentCurrently 3 men facing death penalty in Colo. Colorado’s Democratic lawmakers have put up a proposal that would make the Centennial State the 21st state in the United States to ban the death penalty. Sen. Angela Williams, D-Denver, introduced legislation, SB19-182 , late Monday to abolish Colorado's capital punishment law. "It's going to be a full, straight repeal," said Williams. With Democrats in power and a new governor in office who has said he would sign such a measure, Williams believes now is the time to ban capital punishment in Colorado. "We had a trifecta from the November election. Democrats do control the 1st floor and the 2nd floor. We feel like our opportunities are greater to finally get this important piece of legislation passed in the state of Colorado," responded Williams. If passed, the bill would take effect in July. Williams said it will not impact the sentences of the three men currently on the state’s death row; that decision will be left up to Governor Jared Polis. "I've been clear that if the legislature passed a bill to abolish the death penalty, I would sign it," Polis said in a statement to Denver7. His office has not yet commented on whether he plans to commute the sentences of the 3 men currently on Colorado's death row – Nathan Dunlap, Sir Mario Owens and Robert Ray. Denver7 first took a 360 look at the many layers to the death penalty in Colorado when there was a call for Christopher Watts to be put to death after he pleaded guilty to killing his wife and daughters in Frederick. We are now revisiting the impassioned debate lawmakers have ignited once again inside the gold dome. 20 states currently have no capital punishment on the books. Those highlighted in blue have either never had a death penalty or have abolished it. History of the death penalty in Colorado John Stoefel was the 1st to legally be put to death in Colorado in 1859 after killing his brother-in-law. There were 36 executions carried out up until 1897, when capital punishment was abolished up until it was restored in 1901 after a host of lynchings. Every man executed in Colorado died by hanging up until 1934, when the state switched to gas chambers to kill those on death row. All 100+ murderers killed up until 1967 were convicted murderers. In 1966, Colorado voters defeated a ballot measure referred by the state legislature that would have abolished capital punishment in a 67 to 33 % vote. The next year, Colorado put Luis Monge to death. 5 years later, the U.S. Supreme Court stopped executions across the country in the Furman v. Georgia decision that deemed the death penalty cruel and unusual punishment. In 1979, Gov. Dick Lamm allowed a bill to become law without his signature that reinstated the death penalty and 9 years later, the state adopted lethal injection as its means of capital punishment. In 1995, Colorado lawmakers passed a new bill putting death penalty decisions to a panel of three judges, which would be struck down in 2002 after another Supreme Court ruling saying such decisions needed to go to a jury. In 1997, Gary Lee Davis became the last person to be executed in Colorado and the 1st since Monge in 1967. He was also the only person executed in Colorado to die as a result of lethal injection. After the 2002 court decisions, the three men on death row at the time saw their sentences changed to life in prison. Though several cases have led to death penalty sentences and some cases are still pending , others, like the Aurora theater shooting case, led to life sentences because jurors decided not to impose capital punishment as a sentence. Bill sponsor says capital punishment is unjust, costly "I'm passionate about this because, No. 1, it does not deter crime," said Williams. "I am passionate that it is implied differently." Williams points to data from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which estimates a death penalty trial costs Colorado taxpayers $3.5 million compared to $150,000 for a life-without-parole trial. All 2 men on Colorado's death row are black. A University of Denver study found prosecutors are "more likely to seek the death penalty against minority defendants." "They're all African-American, they're all from Arapahoe County, they're all from the same high school and they were all tried in the 18th Judicial Court," explained Williams. Colorado's 3 death row killers include Dunlap, who was convicted of killing 4 employees at an Aurora Chuck E. Cheese in 1993. Governor John Hickenlooper granted Dunlap a temporary reprieve in 2013 and left his fate up to the next governor. The other 2 are Owens and Ray. They are the two men responsible for killing state Sen. Rhonda Fields' son and fiancée. Mother and Democratic lawmaker disagrees with race and cost arguments For Sen. Fields,
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----COLO., NEV., CALIF., ORE., USA
Dec. 15 COLORADO: Death-penalty decision draws criticism District Attorney George Brauchler will seek the death penalty for an Arapahoe County man accused of raping his ex-girlfriend and then murdering his 6-year-old son. The prosecutor's decision will prompt a trial that defense attorneys had hoped to avoid with a guilty plea. Brandon Johnson, 27, faces 8 charges, including 1st-degree murder, in connection to the February incidents. The defense team said Johnson would have pleaded guilty to the charges if Brauchler had agreed not to pursue death. The district attorney's decision prompted a statement from the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado, which called the capital-punishment process "expensive and arbitrary." "Every costly [death-penalty] trial perpetuates a broken, racially-biased system that can and does make irreversible mistakes," Executive Director Nathan Woodliff-Stanley wrote. "Brauchler wasted millions of taxpayer dollars on the Aurora theater trial, a multimillion-dollar failure that resulted in the same life sentence that was on the table all along." Brauchler had sought the death penalty in 2015 in that high-profile case and stood by his decision after the call for death was rejected by jurors. The crimes in Johnson's case occurred Feb. 10. Sheriff's deputies were called to a home on East Harvard Avenue after Johnson's ex-girlfriend called to report he had sexually assaulted her at knifepoint. The woman told investigators that Johnson had threatened to kill the 2 children if she screamed during the alleged sexual assault. She said Johnson later walked back to his room and she heard a loud scream from the 6-year-old. When deputies arrived, they found the 6-year-old dead and Johnson on the floor with self-inflicted knife wounds. The sexual-assault victim's 2-year-old child was not harmed. During a preliminary hearing on Dec. 2, investigator Tara Mueller told the court the couple had broken up, but was living together for financial reasons. The alleged rape victim, who has not been not named, had recently sent a text message to Johnson indicating she was seeing another man. (source: The Villager) ** Voters clearly backed DA George Brauchler and the death penalty Re: "Political motivation for DA Brauchler seeking death penalty?" Dec. 9 letter to the editor. Letter-writer Phil Cherner, a board member for Coloradans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, has an agenda to prevent District Attorney George Brauchler, or anyone who would sign the death warrant for Nathan Dunlap, from becoming Colorado's next governor. We have no state referendum on the death penalty, but if Brauchler's re-election is viewed as a referendum on his decision to pursue the death penalty against James Holmes, here is what we know: 1. The Democrats refused to even offer up an anti-death penalty candidate. 2. No other GOP or Libertarian candidate dared enter the race to challenge the issue of cost. 3. Of the 522,766 ballots cast in the 18th Judicial District, 356,343 (68.2 %) were cast for Brauchler, when he was unopposed - each a vote of confidence. Our community has spoken - loudly. But the death penalty is not the only issue with a leadership vacuum in Colorado. Kory Nelson, Parker The writer is chairman of the 18th Judicial District Republican Central Central Committee. (source: Opinion, The Denver Post) NEVADA: 2 state legislators co-sponsoring bill to abolish death penalty in Nevada 2 state legislators are co-sponsoring a bill to abolish the death penalty in Nevada. According to State Sen. Tick Segerblom, D-Las Vegas, he and Assemblyman James Ohrenshall, D-Las Vegas, are co-sponsoring Bill Draft Request 544 that would make the "maximum criminal penalty provided by law shall be life without the possibility of parole." Segerblom tells News 4 that "essentially it is too expensive to prosecute and carry out capital punishment." He added that it's been years since the last execution has taken place in the state. "It's just not worth the results," Segerblom added. If passed in the upcoming 2017 Legislative session, the bill would still have to be signed into law by the governor. According to Segerblom, the bill would create a statue to the state law and would not require a vote of the people to create an amendment to the state constitution. However, if the bill does not pass, then a "constitutional change could be a future option," he said. (source: Fox News) *** Man found guilty of killing teenage girl over $450 dispute with her father He stood over a wounded and dying 15-year-old Las Vegas girl, his shoe in her blood, pointed his gun even closer and fired again, prosecutors told jurors Wednesday. And after more than a week of testimony, the panel found 41-year-old Norman Belcher guilty in the slaying of Alexus Postorino. The girl's family and friends rubbed their eyes and
