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Colorado Legislature 2007
News stories from the 2007 Colorado
General Assembly:
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- Bill
to Halve Death Penalty Team Rejected
Lawmakers defeated House Bill 1094 on 35-30 vote. The measure would
have cut in half the state attorney general's
four-member death penalty prosecution team
to free up $180,000 to fund a proposed cold-
case unit to crack Colorado's 1,200 unsolved
murders. Republicans defeated the bill with
10 votes from Democrats, including House
Speaker Andrew Romanoff, D-Denver.Sponsor
Rep. Paul Weissmann, D-Louisville, argued that public safety is poorly
served by spending $4.5 million annually on capital punishment prosecutions
and appeals when the state has executed only one inmate in 40 years.
... Yet, opponents such as Attorney General John Suthers and the state
district attorneys' association lobbied hard against the bill, calling
it a back-door bid to torpedo capital punishment. (4/19/07, Rocky Mountain
News)
- House
Backing Shift of Funds from Capital Crimes Unit
Colorado would shift money from prosecuting
death penalty cases to cracking unsolved murders under a bill that
won initial House approval on Thursday. ... Lacking the votes or Gov.
Bill Ritter's support for outright repeal, Weissmann offered an amendment
that allowed capital punishment, but cut the attorney general's four-person
capital crimes unit to two - the number of inmates now on death row
in Colorado. ... The bill won initial voice vote passage and withstood
a roll-call challenge on a 32-32 tie, just one vote shy of the two-thirds
needed to overturn a voice vote. Unless critics persuade people to
switch votes, the bill is likely to win final House passage on Monday.
Ultimately, it will require approval in the Senate, too, where Republicans
don't like the bill. (4/13/07, Rocky Mountain News)
- Committee
Amends and Approves Death Penalty Bill
The House Appropriations Committee
approved a bill today that would reduce
the number of prosecutors working on death
penalty cases and use the savings to solve
old cases, including 1,200 unsolved homicides
since 1970. ... Weissmann originally tried
to abolish the death penalty but agreed
to an amendment that would reduce the number
of prosecutors to two in the attorney general’s
office, equal to the number of convicted
killers on Colorado’s death row.
... The bill now goes to the full House
for debate. (4/12/07, Camera)
- Death
Penalty Foe Trying New Tack
The Louisville lawmaker who tries but
fails each year to repeal Colorado's death
penalty plans a back-door approach today.
Rep. Paul Weissmann, a Democrat, said he
hopes to persuade colleagues to eliminate
the attorney general's four-person capital
crimes unit. ... His House Bill 1094 is
stalled in the Appropriations Committee.Weissmann
acknowledges that he has gotten no traction
for his bill to bring an end to the rarely
used capital punishment. "If it's
unamended, it will die in committee," he
said Tuesday. "I don't have the votes
or (support of) the governor." ...
He said he thinks he might have a winner
with the alternative amendment: reducing
the attorney general's capital crimes staff
to two - the number of state death row
inmates. That would generate $180,000 annually
in savings to solve cold-case killings
and crime lab expansion. (4/11/07, Rocky
Mountain News)
- House Panel Votes to Abolish Death Penalty
A
House committee voted Wednesday to abolish
Colorado's death penalty and use the millions
spent battling death-row appeals to solve
1,200 unsolved killings. The 7-4 vote in
the House Judiciary Committee ended nearly
four hours of testimony by family members
demanding justice for loved ones whose
deaths remain unsolved. ... The bill moves
to the Appropriations Committee, but
its chances of final passage are iffy.
Gov. Bill Ritter, a former district attorney,
opposes it, spokesman Evan Dreyer said.
But the bill's sponsor, Rep. Paul Weissmann,
D-Louisville, appeared to win the day by
stressing that in nearly 30 years, Colorado
has executed only one man on death row,
where only two inmates remain. He estimated
that since that execution in 1998, $40
million has been spent by prosecutors,
the attorney general and public defenders
on capital-punishment trials and appeals.
(2/8/07, Rocky Mountain News)
- Repeal Colorado Death Penalty Bill
Moves to Appropriations
The House Judiciary
Committee on February 7, 2007 passed the "Repeal
Death Penalty Add Cold Case Unit" bill
(HB07-1094)
unamended to the Appropriations Committee.
The vote was 7-4. (2/7/07, CADP)
- Hearing Set for Colorado Death Penalty
Repeal Bill
A public hearing of the "Repeal
Death Penalty Add Cold Case Unit" bill
(HB07-1094)
is scheduled for Wednesday, February 7,
at 1:30 p.m in the State Capitol. Death
penalty experts Mike Radelet and Rob Dieter,
as well as citizens against the death penalty,
are expected to be present. A sign-up list
for other speakers should be available.
(2/5/07, CADP)
- Colorado
Death Penalty Repeal Bill Introduced
The "Repeal Death Penalty Add Cold
Case Unit" bill (HB07-1094)
was introduced in the Colorado legislature
by Representative Paul Weissmann. Weissman,
representing District 12 in Boulder, is
the Chair of the State, Veterans, & Military
Affairs committee and a member of the Appropriations
committee. The bill was introduced in the
house on January, 10, 2007 and assigned
to the Judiciary and Appropriations committees.
The bill still awaits a senate sponsor. The
bill, according to its summary, "Repeals
the death penalty in Colorado. Declares
the intent of the general assembly to use
the savings from the abolition of the death
penalty to fund the forensic unit, chemistry
lab, and cold case unit in the Colorado
bureau of investigation ("CBI")."
(1/12/07, CADP)
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