Critics say cold-case bill a bid to kill death penalty

House backing shift of funds from capital crimes unit

Alan Gathright And Sue Lindsay, Rocky Mountain News

Friday, April 13, 2007

Colorado would shift money from prosecuting death penalty cases to cracking unsolved murders under a bill that won initial House approval on Thursday.

Critics, however, said House Bill 1094 is a backdoor attempt to obstruct - if not kill - capital punishment in Colorado by "strangling" funding for the state attorney general's capital crimes unit.

Critics said the bill would shift the burden of costly death penalty cases onto local district attorneys, making it especially hard for cash-strapped rural districts to prosecute heinous crimes.

But the sponsor, Rep. Paul Weissmann, D-Louisville, said his bill gives Coloradans a better bang for their public-safety buck.

He stressed that Colorado has executed only one person in 40 years, while 1,200 murders remain unsolved during that time.

"Think about it: 1,200 unsolved homicides in the same time as one execution. That means there's potentially 1,200 murderers walking our streets," said Weissmann. "For public safety, it makes much more sense . . . to catch those people.

"What this bill does is give some hope to those families who have no idea now who killed their son or daughter three years ago, five years ago, 20 years ago and 30 years ago," he said.

Critics weren't buying Weissmann's pitch.

"Make no mistake . . . this legislation is about abolishing the option of the death penalty," said Rep. Steve King, R-Grand Junction, a veteran sheriff's investigator.

"If this was about a cold-case unit," King said, "we would have taken the million dollars (approved) yesterday" for an energy-efficient schools bill "and used it to fund finding murderers."

This year, as in years past, Weissmann initially introduced the bill to abolish the death penalty. He proposed funding the cold-case unit from some of the money that would be saved by not paying for capital prosecutions and state public defenders - an estimated annual price tag of $4.5 million.

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.

That would provide $180,000 to pay for a three-person cold-case unit, created under a separate bill by Rep. Joe Rice, D-Littleton.

"Opponents of the death penalty have been unsuccessful in their effort to abolish it, so they are now taking a backdoor approach," Attorney General John Suthers said in a statement. "If Colorado has a death penalty, prosecutors need the resources to make it viable."

Some Democrats also spoke against the measure.

Rep. Bernie Buescher, D- Grand Junction, warned that by allowing lawmakers to surgically slash staffing for programs they dislike, the bill would "subvert the whole budgeting process that is fundamental to the strength and power of this legislature."

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.

"The problem with the bill is (that) Weissmann's original goal was to abolish the death penalty," said Sen. Greg Brophy, R-Wray. "He's a smart enough guy to figure out what he wants without a full frontal assault on the death penalty."

Ritter, a former Denver district attorney, would not comment Thursday about whether he would sign the bill.

Viewpoints on measure

• Bill sponsor Rep. Paul Weissmann, D-Louisville:

Colorado has executed one person in 40 years, while 1,200 murders remain unsolved during that time. "That means there's potentially 1,200 murderers walking our streets. For public safety, it makes much more sense to . . . catch those people."

• Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey:

"This is merely a political maneuver to try to eliminate the death penalty in Colorado. I fully support investigating cold cases, but not by taking resources away that are needed elsewhere. There is ample federal funding available for cold case investigations."

• Dave Thomas, executive director of the Colorado District Attorneys Council:

The capital crimes unit is "very, very helpful to all DAs in the state, both rural and larger jurisdictions." The bill is a "back-handed way of trying to gut the death penalty. We're going to continue to fight for our side of this."

• Nate Strauch, spokesman for Colorado Attorney General John Suthers (photo of Suthers, above):

"Any time a district attorney is seeking the death penalty, our attorneys are available to help. It would disproportionately affect rural areas because those district attorneys don't have the same resources as larger metro offices."

House Bill 1094

Would cut the state's four-person death penalty prosecution team to two - the number of people now on death row - and use the savings to help fund a cold-case unit.

• DEATH PENALTY NUMBERS

1,200 Unsolved murders in Colorado in past 40 years.

1 death row execution during that time.

1997 The year Colorado last executed an inmate, Gary Lee Davis, convicted of raping and murdering Ginny May 11 years earlier.

$4.5 million is the estimated annual funding for death penalty cases by the Colorado attorney general, state district attorneys and public defenders.

$180,000 Amount the bill would shift by cutting the capital crimes team in half.

gathrighta@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5486 Staff writer Lynn Bartels contributed to this report.