Statement from the Colorado Legislative Special Session Death Penalty Press Conference
Over the last 26 years our legislature has debated which form of the death penalty we should have in Colorado. This debate has been shaped based on an increasing desire to appear hard on crime and to make it easier for the prosecution to obtain a death sentence. Although a significant portion of Colorado citizens were and are opposed to the death penalty, the legislature hasn't entertained a thorough debate in recent memory over whether Colorado should even have a death penalty. In light of the recent Supreme Court decision, it is now time to reopen the dialogue. The groups listed below welcome this. It's time to put the issue back in the spotlight and call for the legislature to conduct full and fair hearings into the propriety of the death penalty in Colorado and to sincerely consider the abolition of the death penalty. Here is just a sampling of the issues to consider:
- No study has ever demonstrated that capital punishment serves as a deterrent for others about to commit a heinous act such as taking a life.
- History shows that the death penalty is disproportionately used against the poor and disadvantaged, most of whom cannot afford adequate counsel.
- The death penalty has been proven to be administered in a manner which is not racially neutral.
- Science, while it has transformed the lives of every single person in our society, is just beginning to have an impact in the area of capital punishment in the form of increasingly sophisticated DNA testing. And the results are disturbing. Over 100 men and women on death row have been released in recent years due, in part, to new DNA evidence which has exonerated them. As a society, we have found, to paraphrase Thomas Jefferson, "humans are fallible." And when you put any decision in our hands, especially the fate of any one individual, we will make mistakes.
- The cost to the state (meaning the individual taxpayer) is vastly greater than a sentence of life imprisonment and those costs are passed on in reduced programs in other worthy areas.
- If a person is opposed to the death penalty they cannot sit on a jury and, thus, the voice of many conscientious people goes unheard.
The Supreme Court recently decided that a panel of three judges cannot decide the fate of another person. This decision was based on constitutional right to a trial by a jury of your peers. Our position would be that twelve people can make a mistake as easily as three. An alternative answer, and the answer supported by a majority of Americans nationally, is to simply put a person convicted of the worst of all crimes in jail for life without parole. Colorado currently allows for such a sentence. We believe that people who are convicted of such crimes should be held totally responsible for their actions and a prison sentence should be imposed. At the same time, we will know that if the time comes when we discover we have made the worst of mistakes, we wish to be able to exonerate and free the unjustly imprisoned.
It must be stated that none of the groups referred to in this letter come to this position without a profound sense of responsibility towards the victims of violent crime. Our support for the abolition of the death penalty should not be viewed as a lack of support for the victims of crime. Violent crime leaves behind a devastation that is immeasurable and indefinable. Our position was best said by Marie Deans, the founder of Murder Victims Families for Reconciliation, "After a murder, victims' families face two things: a death and a crime. At these times, families need help to cope with their grief and loss, and support to heal their hearts and rebuild their lives. From experience, we know that revenge is not the answer. The answer lies in reducing violence, not causing more death. The answer lies in supporting those who grieve for their lost loved ones, not creating more grieving families. It is time we break the cycle of violence. To those who say society must take a life for a life, we say: not in our name."
In the spirit of the organizations listed below we ask the legislature to meaningfully consider abolition of the death penalty, if not at this special session, then at the next regular session of the legislature.
AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION OF COLORADO
AMERICAN FRIENDS SERVICE COMMITTEE OF COLORADO
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
ARCHDIOCESE OF COLORADO
COLORADANS AGAINST THE DEATH PENALTY
COLORADO CRIMINAL DEFENSE BAR
