New Discussions with DPIC Podcast: Denver District Attorney Beth McCann on Criminal Justice Reform and Colorado’s Death-Penalty Repeal

In the April 2020 episode of Discussions with DPIC, Denver District Attorney Beth McCann (pic­tured) speaks with Death Penalty Information Center Executive Director Robert Dunham about Colorado’s repeal of capital punishment.

McCann was elect­ed DA in 2016, as part of a nation­wide wave of reform-ori­ent­ed pros­e­cu­tors. Both as pros­e­cu­tor and in her eight years in the Colorado leg­is­la­ture, McCann has advo­cat­ed for broad crim­i­nal jus­tice reforms, includ­ing the abo­li­tion of the death penal­ty. In her dis­cus­sion with Dunham, she describes the major soci­etal shift away from cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, Colorado’s efforts at abo­li­tion, and the role of pros­e­cu­tors in shaping change. 

McCann dis­cuss­es the dra­mat­ic shift from pros­e­cu­tors tak­ing a ​“tough on crime” stance in sup­port of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment to the grow­ing num­ber of pros­e­cu­tors who now seek sys­temic reforms and have called for a reduc­tion or end to the death penal­ty. She said the change is part of a pub­lic recon­sid­er­a­tion of the legal sys­tem, not­ing, ​“Data is now spark­ing peo­ple to real­ly think about ​‘what are we doing in the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem and how can we make it work better?’” 

McCann says the new gen­er­a­tion of reform pros­e­cu­tors — of which she is a part — is ​“inter­est­ed in look­ing at new ways because we’re rec­og­niz­ing that the old ways haven’t always served us well. … How do we real­ly pre­vent crime? How do we keep peo­ple from get­ting involved in the sys­tem? And if they do, are there alter­na­tives to incar­cer­a­tion or mass incar­cer­a­tion?” She says rethink­ing crim­i­nal jus­tice ​“in a more enlight­ened way” means ​“look­ing at oth­er things besides just impris­on­ment.” For pros­e­cu­tors ​“who are more ori­ent­ed toward crim­i­nal jus­tice reform,” she says, ​“it’s part of [their] think­ing … that they would not see the death penal­ty as an appropriate punishment.” 

Dunham asked McCann about the use of the death penal­ty as a nego­ti­a­tion device, a prac­tice that he not­ed was a fac­tor in many of the homi­cide exon­er­a­tions described in the National Registry of Exonerations 2019 report. McCann, who has pre­vi­ous­ly expressed oppo­si­tion to the use of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment as a means of obtain­ing guilty pleas, said, ​“We shouldn’t be fil­ing cas­es unless we can prove them, and we shouldn’t be using the threat of killing some­one … to get a plea to first degree murder.” 

McCann rejects the myth that the death penal­ty is a deter­rent to crime. ​“Most offend­ers who com­mit extreme acts of vio­lence assume that they’re not going to get caught, and they don’t think about the con­se­quence,” she said. ​“We have the Aurora the­ater shoot­er, and it clear­ly did not deter him.” Moreover, she said, ​“since I’ve been the DA, we haven’t seen a big spike in hor­rif­ic mur­ders in Denver [even though] peo­ple know that I’m not going to bring the death penalty.” 

Though McCann has not sought the death penal­ty dur­ing her tenure as DA, she has worked in pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al offices in which death sen­tences were being sought. She said that, because of the extreme nature of the crimes involved and the chal­lenges of han­dling a death penal­ty case, ​“It takes an enor­mous toll on the office as a whole, real­ly, emo­tion­al­ly, as well as resource-wise.” ​“Seeking the death penal­ty is the most dif­fi­cult and gut-wrench­ing deci­sion that a pros­e­cu­tor makes,” she added. 

The dis­cus­sion con­clud­ed with McCann reflect­ing on her move from the state leg­is­la­ture to becom­ing District Attorney. ​“It’s impor­tant that we have some­one [as DA] who is try­ing to improve the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem,” she said. She also believes that because of the rela­tion­ships she devel­oped with oth­er law­mak­ers dur­ing her tenure as a state rep­re­sen­ta­tive, she can ​“influ­ence and help shape leg­is­la­tion” by work­ing to ensure that leg­is­la­tors under­stand the real­i­ties of the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem and the poten­tial con­se­quences of their legislation. 

Ultimately, McCann said she found that she could do more as a pros­e­cu­tor to affect people’s lives than she could as a leg­is­la­tor. ​“When you’re in charge of an office, you have more abil­i­ty to actu­al­ly make those indi­vid­ual dif­fer­ences. … This is a bet­ter posi­tion for me to actu­al­ly accom­plish some change.”