Gov. Jared S. Polis, a Democrat, signed the repeal into law
after it had reached his desk from the state legislature. It had passed the
Senate in January and the House in February after several failed attempts to
end capital punishment in the state.
Colorado had executed just one person since reinstating the
death penalty in the mid-1970s: Gary Davis, who had been convicted of the rape
and murder of Virginia May, was given a lethal injection in 1997.
On Monday, Mr. Polis also commuted the sentences of three
men on death row — Robert Ray, Sir Mario Owens and Nathan Dunlap — to life in
prison without the possibility of parole. He said in a statement that he wanted
the law to be applied consistently.
“Commutations are
typically granted to reflect evidence of extraordinary change in the offender,”
Mr. Polis said, noting that this was not the reason he was commuting the three
sentences.
“Rather, the commutations of these despicable and guilty
individuals are consistent with the abolition of the death penalty in the state
of Colorado,” he said, “and consistent with the recognition that the death
penalty cannot be, and never has been, administered equitably in the state of
Colorado.”
Colorado joined 21 other states that have repealed the death
penalty, according to the advocacy group Equal Justice USA, which had
campaigned for the end of capital punishment in the state. The organization
mounted similar efforts in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Maryland and
Illinois, which have all abolished the death penalty.
Shari Silberstein, the group’s executive director, said in a
statement that it was a proud moment for Colorado.
“With Gov. Polis’s
signature, the state liberated itself from one of the most glaring failures of
the legal system and is charting a new path toward justice,” she said. “Instead
of wasting millions of dollars every year, the state can focus on the healing
that survivors of violence need while also working toward making families and
communities safe by preventing future violence.”
George Brauchler, a Republican district attorney in
Colorado, criticized the repeal in a statement on Monday.
“There are a few in Colorado today who will cheer the
sparing of the lives of these coldblooded murderers,” he said. “For the rest of
Colorado, make no mistake: We will save no money. We are not safer. We are not
a better people. And the only lives spared are those who commit the ultimate
acts of evil against us.”
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