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Colorado Legislature 2009

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The Senator Who Saved the Death Penalty
Whoever thought Gov. Bill Ritter would have a reason to thank Senate Minority Leader Josh Penry? ... It was clear Ritter did not want to be faced with signing or vetoing a bill that would eliminate the death penalty, a divisive issue even within his own party. In contrast, Penry, a Grand Junction Republican, was not confused about his feelings. He supports the death penalty and began preparing early on for a nail biting fight over HB 1274, which he saw pass by a single vote in the House last month. Penry's strategy involved finding alternative funding for cold case investigations, while leaving the death penalty intact. Key supporters included Sen. John Morse, D-Colorado Springs, who is a former law enforcement officer and a leading proponent of more money for cold cases. (5/8/09, Face the State)
Bid to Repeal Death Penalty Fails in Senate
A bill that would have repealed the death penalty in Colorado and used the savings to fund cold case investigations failed this afternoon in the Senate on a 17-18 vote. Joining all 14 Republicans in opposing the measure were Democrats Mary Hodge of Brighton, Jim Isgar of Hesperus, John Morse of Colorado Springs, and Lois Tochtrop of Thornton. A conference committee earlier in the day put a ban on the death penalty back into a bill providing funding to solve cold case murders, setting up their colleagues for politically tricky votes on the controversial topic on the final day of the session. (5/6/09, The Denver Post)
Bid to Eliminate CO Death Penalty in Trouble
A bid to eliminate the death penalty in Colorado and use the savings to solve cold cases appears to be unraveling as the legislative session winds down. The Senate preliminarily voted Monday to remove all references to the death penalty from the bill and instead use a new fee on traffic and criminal violations to fund cold case investigations. The vote won't be official until senators wrap up their business for the day, which wasn't expected until late Monday evening. Backers could try again to persuade some senators to change their minds and go back to the original version of the bill. If the Senate ends up passing a bill that only addresses cold cases, it still would have to go back to the House for approval. Members of the House, who passed the original bill by just one vote, could agree to the change or both sides could try to work out a compromise. (5/4/09, The Denver Post)
Death-Penalty Repeal Wins Again at Capitol
A bill that would repeal the death penalty in Colorado won yet another vote today, but storm clouds appear to be gathering over the effort at the state Capitol. The Senate Appropriations Committee passed the bill this morning on a 6-4 party-line vote. It now goes to the full Senate, and the bill's sponsors say they are unsure whether it can survive that vote - which could come as early as today. "My sense is it's a close call," said Morgan Carroll, an Aurora Democrat who is the bill's Senate sponsor. "So it could go either way." (5/1/09, The Denver Post)
Senate Committee Backs Eliminating Death Penalty
A proposal to eliminate the death penalty in Colorado cleared another hurdle at the Capitol on Wednesday. The Senate State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee endorsed the measure (House Bill 1274) in a party-line vote, sending in to another committee for a vote. The bill would take the $1 million now being spent to prosecute death penalty cases and use it to investigate cold cases. That would add seven employees to the state's cold case unit, which currently has only one investigator. All three Democrats on the committee voted for the measure, and both Republicans voted against it. (4/29/09, The Denver Post)
Death Penalty Debate Lingers
Northwest Colorado's top prosecutor and Rep. Randy Baumgardner, R-Hot Sulphur Springs, oppose a repeal of Colorado's death penalty that passed the state House of Representatives in a tight 33-32 vote. ... After the House approval last week, the bill was introduced in the state Senate on Thursday and assigned to the State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee. ... According to a fiscal analysis of H.B. 1274, repealing the death penalty would save the state more than $1 million each of the next two fiscal years. The cold-case unit's budget would increase from $68,000 and one full-time employee to $833,376 and 8 full-time employees. (4/27/09, Steamboat Pilot & Today)
Praise for a Torn Man Voting
What was going through his mind, I asked Edward VigilI mean really, I added for emphasis — as he sat there Tuesday, every eye in the Colorado House trained on him. The vote on whether the state should abandon the death penalty was deadlocked, 32-32, when his name was called. Vigil rocked gently on both legs, staring at his shoes, as he recalled the moment. Some people put the time it took for him to cast his vote at five minutes. One person swore it was an hour. I thought it would take the freshman Democratic legislator from Fort Garland that long to answer my first question. (4/22/09, The Denver Post)
Death-Penalty Repeal Passes House by Single Vote
The state House today approved a bill to eliminate the death penalty in Colorado by a single vote. The House voted 33-32 to send the bill, HB 1274, to the state Senate, with one Republican voting in favor of the bill and six Democrats voting against it. The bill would use the projected cost saving from ending the death penalty to fund a cold-case unit at the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. "We ought to fund the unit we created two years ago to try to solve some of those unsolved crimes," said House Majority Leader Paul Weissmann, a Louisville Democrat who is the bill's sponsor. (4/21/09, The Denver Post)
House Moves Toward Ending Death Penalty
Colorado's death penalty took one step toward the grave Wednesday as lawmakers in the state House gave initial approval to a bill that would end capital punishment and use the savings to solve cold cases. Debate ranged from the morality of the state putting criminals to death to the effectiveness of the penalty as a deterrent to crime. In the end, five Democrats joined Republicans in opposing House Bill 1274, but it wasn't enough to kill the legislation. House Majority Leader Paul Weissmann, the bill sponsor, said he's not celebrating just yet as the role call vote of the House Thursday will be challenging. He's pitching his bill as a way to reduce state expenses and increase public safety by helping to put away some of Colorado's 1,400 unconvicted murderers. (4/15/09, The Denver Post)
HB09-1274 Clears House Appropriations Committee
The "Repeal Death Penalty" bill (HB09-1274) cleared the House Appropriations Committee on April 3rd. The bill next moves to the full House for a vote. View the bill's history. (4/6/09, CADP)
Listen to KCFR Radio Interview About Death Penalty Repeal Bill
The above link should download an "audio playlist" file for playback in iTunes or similar programs. Alternatively, browse the KCFR Program Archives for the interview. (3/4/09, KCFR.org)
Colorado Execution Repeal Gains Ground
A House committee Monday night, after hearing hours of emotional testimony, approved a bill that would ban the death penalty in Colorado. In a more than six-hour hearing before the House Judiciary Committee, families of murder victims along with former prosecutors and others argued for and against HB 1274, which would make life in prison without parole the highest punishment available to prosecutors. Under the bill, sponsored by House Majority Leader Paul Weissmann, D-Louisville, any savings from not trying the expensive cases in court would go to investigating unsolved homicides. (2/24/09, The Denver Post)
Public Hearing on HB09-1274 Scheduled for February 23
A public hearing of the "Repeal Death Penalty" bill (HB09-1274) is scheduled for Monday, February 23 at 1:30 p.m. at Old Supreme Court Judiciary - House Committee Room 0107. This bill seeks to repeal the death penalty in Colorado. It declares the intent of the General Assembly to use the savings from the abolition of the death penalty to fund the cold case unit in the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. (2/18/09, CADP)
Bill Would Trade Colorado's Death Penalty for Cold Cases
The bill, which House Majority Leader Paul Weissmann, D-Louisville, said he plans to introduce next week, has already sparked opposition from the state's top prosecutors and promises to prompt a political firefight. It threatens to put Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter, a former district attorney and a Catholic, in tricky territory as well. ... Last year, bill supporters were unprepared and the bill nearly passed, said Howard Morton of the group Families of Homicide Victims and Missing Persons. This year, he said, backers are better armed. They have traveled the state drumming up support for the measure through public forums. "We expect to win," Morton said. "Our position is very simple. Why talk about penalties when we haven't even caught (them)? Let's do first things first. These murderers are living in our neighborhoods." ... Meanwhile, Charles Chaput, archbishop of the Catholic Archdiocese of Denver, supported abolishing the death penalty two years ago, saying that while "long Catholic traditions do support the legitimacy of capital punishment in extraordinary cases, the conditions that would justify its use in developed countries like the United States almost never exist." (2/1/09, The Camera)

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