---
title: 'EDITORIALS: Colorado Newspapers Support Bill to Repeal Death Penalty'
description: 'As Colorado’s Senate Judiciary Committee considers SB 95—a bill that would replace the death penalty with life in prison without the possibility of…'
canonical: 'https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/editorials-colorado-newspapers-support-bill-to-repeal-death-penalty'
section: news
date: '2017-02-15T16:35:33-05:00'
updated: '2025-03-14T14:46:55-04:00'
source: 'Death Penalty Information Center'
---

! As **Colorado**'s Senate Judiciary Committee considers [**SB 95**](http://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2017A/bills/2017A_095_01.pdf)—a bill that would replace the death penalty with life in prison without the possibility of parole—the editorial boards of *The Denver Post* and *The Durango Herald* have urged the legislature to end capital punishment in the state. Colorado's death penalty system "is broken beyond repair and needs to be repealed," wrote *The Denver Post*. Repeal, it said, "would save the state millions in both the prosecution and defense of murderers and an untold number of judicial man hours that have so infrequently resulted in death." The *Post* editorial also highlighted the unwillingness of Colorado juries to impose death sentences, noting that the highly-publicized capital cases of **[James Holmes](https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/mentally-ill-james-holmes-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-in-aurora-co-theater-shooting)** and [**Dexter Lewis**](https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/life-sentence-for-denver-bar-murders-called-a-great-day-for-justice) both resulted in life sentences. *The Durango Herald* editorial board also called for repeal, agreeing with the arguments advanced by Republican legislators in the neighboring mountain states of Utah and Nevada that the death penalty "is a failed public policy, is a waste of taxpayer dollars, the risk of executing innocent people is too high and it causes unnecessary harm to victims’ families." The *Herald* editorial also emphasized the high cost of capital punishment—quoting estimates by the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado "that the average death penalty trial costs $3.5 million, compared to $150,000 for a trial for life without parole"—and that Colorado has had only one execution in 50 years. In 2013, citing arbitrariness and unfairness in the application of the state's death penalty, [**Governor John W. Hickenlooper**](https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/colorado-governor-indefinitely-stays-execution-over-concerns-about-flawed-system) granted a reprieve to Nathan Dunlop, one of three men on Colorado's death row. A **[2015 study](https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/new-study-shows-discrimination-in-colorado-prosecutors-use-of-death-penalty)** published in the University of Denver Law Review subsequently showed that prosecutorial decisions to seek the death penalty in Colorado "depend\[\] to an alarming extent on the race and geographic location of the defendant." All of Colorado's death-row prisoners are African-American men from the municipality of Aurora. SB 95 would apply prospectively to future crimes, but would not affect the cases of the prisoners currently on death row. \[**UPDATE**: After holding hearings on SB 95, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 3-2 to defeat the bill. The vote effectively ends death penalty repeal efforts in the state for the 2017 legislative session.\]

(Editorial, "[Repeal Colorado’s flawed and broken death penalty](http://www.denverpost.com/2017/02/14/repeal-colorados-flawed-and-broken-death-penalty/)," The Denver Post, February 14, 2017; Editorial, "[Colorado should join mountain movement to end the death penalty](https://durangoherald.com/articles/135520-colorado-should-join-mountain-movement-to-end-the-death-penalty)," The Durango Herald, February 13, 2017.) See [**Editorials**](http://deathpenaltyinfo.org/editorials) and [**Recent Legislative Activity**](https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/facts-and-research/data/recent-legislative-activity).