Colorado Becomes 22^nd State to Abolish Death Penalty

On March 23, 2020, Colorado became the 22^nd U.S. state to abol­ish the death penal­ty, as Governor Jared Polis (pic­tured) signed leg­is­la­tion repeal­ing the state’s cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment statute and com­mut­ed the sen­tences of the state’s three death-row pris­on­ers to life with­out pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole. The state was the tenth to leg­isla­tive­ly or judi­cial­ly abol­ish cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in the past fifteen years. 

Colorado’s abo­li­tion of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment exem­pli­fies a nation­wide trend away from the death penal­ty, which has been par­tic­u­lar­ly strik­ing in the West. Governors in four Western states – California, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington – halt­ed exe­cu­tions in recent years. Two of those states – Colorado and Washington – went on to judi­cial­ly or leg­isla­tive­ly abol­ish the death penal­ty, and Oregon restrict­ed the cir­cum­stances in which it can be used. No state west of Texas has car­ried out an exe­cu­tion in the past five years and few­er new death sen­tences were imposed in those states last year than in any year since California brought back its death penal­ty in the late 1970s. Public sup­port for the death penal­ty through­out the U.S. is near a gen­er­a­tional low, drop­ping from a high of 80% in 1994 to 56% in 2019. A major­i­ty of Americans (60%) in last year’s death-penal­ty poll by the Gallup orga­ni­za­tion said they pre­fer life with­out parole to the death penal­ty as the appro­pri­ate pun­ish­ment for murder. 

The repeal bill did not address the fates of the state’s three death-row pris­on­ers: Nathan Dunlap, Sir Mario Owens, and Robert Ray. In a state­ment released in con­junc­tion with the exec­u­tive orders com­mut­ing their sen­tences, Governor Polis said his acts of clemen­cy were not based on human­i­tar­i­an con­cerns, but ​“to reflect what is now Colorado law.” The com­mu­ta­tions, he said, ​“are con­sis­tent with the abo­li­tion of the death penal­ty in the State of Colorado, and con­sis­tent with the recog­ni­tion that the death penal­ty can­not be, and nev­er has been, admin­is­tered equi­tably in the State of Colorado.” 

Colorado’s new law applies to cas­es crim­i­nal­ly charged on or after July 1, 2020, cre­at­ing the pos­si­bil­i­ty that new death sen­tences could still be imposed in pend­ing cap­i­tal cas­es in Adams and El Paso coun­ties. However, Colorado juries have not imposed any death sen­tences in a decade and the state’s last exe­cu­tion was more than 20 years ago, in 1997. Colorado juries have refused to impose death sen­tences even in high-pro­file cas­es. In 2015, juries imposed life with­out parole for Dexter Lewis, who was con­vict­ed of killing five peo­ple in a Denver bar, and James Holmes, who was con­vict­ed of killing 12 and injur­ing dozens more in a mass shoot­ing at an Aurora movie the­ater. In 2013, then-Governor John Hickenlooper imposed a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions, call­ing the state’s death penal­ty sys­tem flawed and inequitable. 

Colorado’s repeal bill ben­e­fit­ted from bipar­ti­san leg­isla­tive spon­sor­ship in the Senate and a ​“blue wave” in the 2018 mid-term elec­tions that gave Democrats a super­ma­jor­i­ty in the House. ​“I just came to the con­clu­sion I didn’t think the state of Colorado should have the pow­er over life and death in any cir­cum­stance,” said Sen. Jack Tate, a Republican spon­sor of the bill. Democratic Rep. Adrienne Benavidez, who spon­sored the bill in the House, said, ​“It’s impor­tant that we end that I think it has been a very dis­crim­i­na­to­ry prac­tice, not just towards peo­ple of col­or, but peo­ple with­in geo­graph­ic areas with­in the state.” The bill passed the Senate by a 19 – 13 vote on January 30 and the House by a 38 – 27 vote on February 26.