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House panel votes to abolish death penalty

Money saved to go toward cold cases

Alan Gathright, Rocky Mountain News

Published February 8, 2007 at midnight

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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.

Meanwhile, top law enforcement officials argued that House Bill 1094 offered a "red herring" choice because lawmakers could both fund cold-case units and maintain the death penalty for the most heinous murders.

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.

"This bill is a trade-off," Weissmann said.

"We in this state spend a lot of money on a death penalty that's rarely used." Instead, the bill would give "families an opportunity to have their cases solved," he said.

Rep. Amy Stephens, R-Monument, joined most Republicans on the panel in saying that revoking the death penalty was a profound change that should be left to Colorado voters to decide on a ballot measure.

Rep. Debbie Stafford, R-Aurora, a counselor who has worked with both victims and offenders, said she believes the criminal justice system needs changes.

"I think that it's time we shake up our system," she said.

Colorado Attorney General John Suthers cited the case of an inmate already serving a life sentence who then kills a guard.

"The social contract demands the response" be a greater punishment than saying "we're going to take away your television privileges," he said.

But even anguished parents, such as Gail LaSuer, said she reluctantly would give up the death penalty just to have more funding to catch the killer who beat to death her 26-year-old daughter, Monique, in a Denver hotel in 2000.

"I would rather have a larger number of people caught than have a few executed," she said.

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