Colorado lawmakers introduce bill to abolish death penalty

Colorado State lawmakers will consider a bill this week to abolish the death penalty.

Those who argue for the repeal say it’s expensive, biased, and cruel. Opponents say it should be left up to voters.

A sponsor of the bill, Senator Angela Williams who represents District 33 in Denver says, “I believe that life in prison with no chance of ever getting out is punishment enough.”

Recently convicted killers Chris Watts and James Holmes were convicted of what many would call heinous crimes, but they weren’t sentenced to death. Only one person has been executed under the death penalty in Colorado since it was reinstated in 1977. Gary Lee Davis was killed using lethal injection in 1997.

Co-sponsor and Democratic state Senator Julie Gonzales argues, “The death penalty is irrevocable, it is cruel and it is unusual practice and for those reasons, we should abolish it.”

Gov. Jared Polis has expressed his support for the bill. He told Colorado Public Radio that if the bill passes, he’d be inclined to take the three men awaiting execution off death row.

“If the state Republicans and Democrats were to say, and I were to sign a bill that said we no longer have the death penalty in Colorado, whether it’s formally in the bill or not, I would certainly take that as a strong indication that those who are currently on death row should have their sentences commuted to life in prison,” Polis said.

The news isn’t sitting well with Democratic state Senator Rhonda Fields. Two of the men sitting on death row are responsible for the death of her son and his fiancee. She says this legislation is moving forward too fast.

“It was just introduced yesterday, [Tuesday] there was a press conference and [Wednesday] the bill will be heard, and it gives very little opportunity for the victims to show up,” Fields says.

She thinks the decision should be left up to voters, rather than lawmakers. The hearing has its first hearing Wednesday afternoon before the Senate Judiciary Committee.