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News
Colorado News Archive from 2003
- Archive
of Colorado News
See all CADP News links and excerpts from
the years 2000 | 2001 | 2002.
- About
Broken Links
- Capital
Punishment in Colorado
Colorado Department of Corrections Web site.
Includes capital punishment history, current
death row roster and photos, location of death
row and execution room, security, activities,
inmate uniforms, death row tenure, incarceration
costs, execution day, other facts, and state
archives.
- Colorado's
Death Row
CADP's information and links about prisoners
now on Colorado's death row.
- Colorado's
Death Row Appeals and Pending Capital Cases
Information on clients, lawyers, places, and
dates.
- Colorado
Death Row Survivor Spends Time Forgetting
Sylvester
Lee Garrison spent more than 11 years on
death row. He had 14 dates with
the gas chamber and three last-minute reprieves.
... "Oooooh, that's a cold turkey," he
says of capital punishment, which he has
always opposed. "It's not a deterrent
to crime" and it primarily targets the
poor." (11/22/03, Rocky Mountain News)
- Colorado
General Assembly
News stories and links from the 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 Colorado
legislative sessions.
- Colorado
Supreme Court Voids Death Sentences
The Colorado Supreme Court today held that
Colorado's three judge death penalty sentencing
system is unconstitutional, reversing the death
sentences of murderers George Woldt and Francisco
Martinez Jr. ... Both were sentenced to death
by three-judge panels. Under today's ruling,
each will be resentenced to life in prison
without chance of parole. (2/24/03, The Denver
Post)
- Court
Asked to Uphold 2 Colorado Death Sentences
Colorado asked the U.S. Supreme Court on
Thursday to let two convicted murderers, spared
execution by earlier court rulings, be put
to death after all. George
Woldt, 26, and Francisco
Martinez Jr., 29, were convicted by juries
and then sentenced to die by three-judge panels.
- CU
Expert Says State Leaning Toward Abolition
A new study by a local academic says capital
punishment is on its way out in Colorado --
although supporters of the death penalty staunchly
disagree. A 125-page article on the history
of the death penalty in Colorado will be published
this month in the University of Colorado Law
Review by Michael Radelet, a CU law school
professor and death penalty expert. Fewer executions,
more humane killing methods and a shift in
arguments for the death penalty may point to
a trend away from the punishment altogether,
Radelet said. "I don't think there's any
question that the death penalty will be eliminated
in Colorado sooner rather than later, but exactly
how that happens is hard to say," Radelet,
an opponent of capital punishment, said. Gov.
Bill Owens' spokesman Dan Hopkins disagrees.
(5/13/03, The Daily Camera)
- Colorado's
Fifth Private Jail Nearly Ready
Colorado's fifth private prison will open
in Brush in September with the arrival of
90 female inmates from Wyoming, officials
have confirmed. The concept of running prisons
for profit is controversial, but cost-conscious
federal, state and local officials are increasingly
turning to the private sector to finance,
design, build and operate prisons. (8/31/03,
The Denver Post) - DA
Plans to Appeal Death-Penalty Ruling
Arapahoe County prosecutors said Wednesday
they will appeal a judge's ruling this week
that precluded them from seeking the death
penalty for a man convicted in an execution-style
triple homicide. The case is one of two capital
murder trials that were under way last year
when a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on an Arizona
case struck down the way Colorado handled death
penalty cases. As a result, the Colorado legislature
passed a law that restored the decision of
a life or death sentence to a jury instead
of a three-judge panel. But in the case of
Randy Canister, that state law was unconstitutionally
tailored to apply to only two cases, Arapahoe
County District Judge Robert H. Russell II
ruled Monday. The second capital murder case,
that of Abe Hagos, is a Denver case and Russell
has no jurisdiction. (5/8/03, Rocky Mountain
News)
- Governors
Owens, Ryan to Tangle in Death-Penalty Debate
Just back from a trade trip to Europe, Gov.
Bill Owens will be taking off again, but
this time it's closer to home and a trip
with a different reason. Owens is traveling
to Michigan for a debate Thursday evening
with former Illinois Gov. George Ryan over
the death penalty ... Since 1890, Colorado
has executed 78 men - 45 by hanging, 32 by lethal
gas and one
by lethal injection. The last, Gary Lee Davis,
53, was executed Oct. 13, 1997. It was the
first execution by the state in 30 years.
(11/12/03, Rocky Mountain News)
- Governor
Owens Blasts Death Row Commutations on TV
Gov. Bill Owens has the power to commute
the sentence of all five of Colorado's death
row inmates, but it's not going to happen.
In an often contentious debate on ABC-TV's
Nightline Monday, Owens told outgoing Illinois
Gov. George Ryan that his decision to commute
the sentences of all of his state's death row
inmates was an abuse of power and a miscarriage
of justice. ... Owens, a passionate supporter
of the death penalty, was contacted Monday
afternoon by Nightline producers to debate
Ryan. (1/14/03, Rocky Mountain News)
- Harlan,
Robert: Judge Overturns Death Sentence
A judge today threw out the death sentence
for a man convicted of murder, ruling that
jurors were improperly
exposed to the Bible and passages describing
God’s view on punishment as they deliberated. Robert
Harlan was ordered to return to Adams County
District Court to be resentenced in compliance
with state law. (5/23/03, Rocky Mountain News)
- History
of the Death Penalty Law in Colorado
Summary listing. (2/25/03, The Rocky Mountain
News)
- Legal
Tug-of-War Over Colorado Executions
Five
years later, juries have convicted all
three men of first-degree murder: Randy
Canister, Venda Johnson (also known as Trevon
Washington) and, this week, Dante Owens.
None has drawn a death sentence, due in large
part to the legal views of nine men and women
in black robes. ... The word both sides come
back to is "arbitrary." It is,
in many ways, the crux of America's death
penalty debate. Prosecutors say it's arbitrary
for the Supreme Court to keep changing the
rules. Opponents say the way states impose
death sentences is already arbitrary, and
the only way to fix that is to scrap executions
altogether. Everyone says the cases of Canister,
Johnson and Owens prove their point. (12/20/03,
Rocky Mountain News)
- Lynching
in Colorado
Scores of lynchings described in Stephen J.
Leonard's new book, "Lynching in Colorado,
1859-1919." The tale of Colorado's lynchings
is not well known, having slipped through the
cracks of our history books. Now, Leonard,
a history professor at Metro State College
in Denver, has brought the stories to light
in this extremely well-researched book that
should be required reading for anyone interested
in the full story of the settling of Colorado.
Behind the stories of the 175 lynchings that
took place in Colorado between 1859 and 1919
is the saga of how Colorado was transformed
from an obscure part of the territorial West
into a state brimming with gold and silver
mines and an influx of settlements. (2/1/03,
The Daily Camera)
- Montour,
Edward: Death Sentence for Killing Guard
CASTLE ROCK -- An inmate who beat a prison
guard to death with a soup ladle was sentenced
to death today. Edward
Montour Jr. killed Sgt. Eric Autobee, 23,
in order to raise his stature in prison, prosecutors
told Douglas County District Judge Paul King.
(2/27/03, The Denver Post)
- Neal,
William "Cody": Death Sentence Revoked
Jefferson County District Judge Tom Woodford
revoked the William "Cody" Neal death
sentence on Friday and imposed three consecutive
life prison terms because of recent court
rulings finding that Colorado's law was unconstitutional.
... The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June
that only jurors, not judges, can decide
whether a convicted murderer will be executed.
(12/13/03, Rocky Mountain News)
- Owens,
Dante: Woman Unswerving in ID During Trial
Owens
is charged with numerous counts of first-degree
murder,
a count
of sex
assault
and one of conspiracy. He could face the death
penalty if convicted. ... In earlier trials,
Venda Johnson Jr., also known as Trevon Washington,
25, was sentenced to life in prison. A judge
ruled he was ineligible for the death penalty
because he is mentally retarded. The third defendant,
Randy Canister, 26, was convicted and is awaiting
sentencing. Prosecutors
are seeking the death penalty. (11/15/03, Rocky
Mountain News)
- Price
of Life or Death About the Same
The cost of keeping an inmate in prison for
life versus the cost of executing an inmate
are roughly equal in Colorado, one official
estimates. "No one has done a dollar-for-dollar
analysis," said Alison Morgan, spokeswoman
for the Colorado Department of Corrections.
But she gives a rough guess that the costs
are about comparable - $1 million for each,
with the death row inmates racking up that
amount in a shorter period of time. ... Last
year, the attorney general's office spent $394,071
on death penalty cases, and that doesn't include
$743,321 spent by district attorneys and $1,362,444
by public defenders. (2/25/03, Rocky Mountain
News)
- Radelet,
Michael: Death-Penalty Professor Accuses
System, Influences Ryan
A smile crept over Michael Radelet's face.
He heaved a box stuffed two feet thick with
files onto a table and pulled out a folder
labeled, "Joe Arridy." "This
is a good one," he said. Arridy, he said,
most likely was wrongly executed in 1939 in
Colorado. The mentally retarded man confessed
to a murder that somebody else had already
confessed to committing. Both men were executed.
(1/26/03, The Daily Camera)
- Radelet,
Michael: Boulder Urged to Oppose Death Penalty
Death penalty expert Michael Radelet of
Boulder, whose research helped prompt a mass
clemency for death-row inmates in Illinois
earlier this month, has begun a campaign for
a moratorium on Colorado's death penalty. (1/26/03,
The Daily Camera)
- Salazar
to Appeal CO Ruling
DENVER -- Attorney General Ken Salazar
will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review a
state court ruling that spared
two men from death sentences handed down
by three-judge panels. The state Supreme Court
said the sentences were unconstitutional, citing
an earlier U.S. Supreme Court ruling that said
only juries, not judges, can determine whether
a death penalty is justified. (3/13/03, The
Daily Camera)
- Supreme
Court of the United States
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