NEW VOICES: Prosecutors in Colorado and Nevada Call for Death-Penalty Repeal

Two pros­e­cu­tors with dif­fer­ent philo­soph­i­cal per­spec­tives on cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment have called on their respec­tive states to abol­ish cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. Boulder County, Colorado, District Attorney Michael Dougherty (pic­tured, left), who oppos­es cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in prin­ci­ple, and for­mer Washoe County, Nevada, homi­cide pros­e­cu­tor Thomas E. Viloria (pic­tured, right), who has suc­cess­ful­ly obtained four death ver­dicts, have added their voic­es to sup­port efforts to repeal the death penal­ty in their states. Though approach­ing the issue with dif­fer­ent ide­olo­gies, both pros­e­cu­tors agreed that the death penal­ty should be elim­i­nat­ed because of its high cost, its inef­fec­tive­ness as a crime deter­rent, and its poten­tial­ly detri­men­tal effects on vic­tims’ families.

In com­ments to leg­is­la­tors on March 4, Dougherty said, ​“I’m strong­ly opposed to the death penal­ty, and it should be abol­ished in Colorado. … I don’t believe any state or coun­try should put its cit­i­zens to death.” The high costs in time and resources can’t be jus­ti­fied, he also stat­ed, par­tic­u­lar­ly in a juris­dic­tion such as Boulder in which juries don’t believe it should be imposed. ​“I talk to vic­tims’ fam­i­lies about it,” Dougherty said, ​“and one of the things we always focus on in these con­ver­sa­tions, is it is up to the jury to decide on a sen­tence, and a Boulder jury would have to reach a unan­i­mous ver­dict find­ing the death penal­ty sen­tence is moral­ly just. As Boulder dis­trict attor­ney, I will not sim­ply ignore the law that allows for use of the death penal­ty, but I must weigh a prosecutor’s eth­i­cal oblig­a­tion to only pur­sue charges that can be proven beyond a rea­son­able doubt. I don’t believe a Boulder jury would reach a unan­i­mous ver­dict find­ing a death sen­tence is jus­ti­fied.” Dougherty also expressed qualms about using the threat of death to obtain plea deals. ​“I have sig­nif­i­cant eth­i­cal con­cerns if peo­ple were ever to use the death penal­ty to moti­vate a guilty plea to a less­er sen­tence,” he said. ​“I would nev­er want any pros­e­cu­tor to say that a defen­dant has to accept life with­out parole in order to avoid the death penalty.”

Viloria has also come to oppose cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, but he took a very dif­fer­ent route in reach­ing that con­clu­sion. In an op-ed for the Reno Gazette Journal, Viloria wrote about his expe­ri­ences pros­e­cut­ing five death-penal­ty cas­es and obtain­ing death sen­tences in four. ​“In each of the cas­es I pros­e­cut­ed, the victim’s fam­i­ly mem­bers believed the death penal­ty would help close their emo­tion­al wounds,” Viloria said. ​“Yet because none of those inmates have been exe­cut­ed many years lat­er, fam­i­ly mem­bers haven’t received that promised clo­sure.” He said “[d]eath penal­ty cas­es right­ful­ly demand greater scruti­ny, so mur­der vic­tim fam­i­ly mem­bers often suf­fer more trau­ma than mur­der vic­tim fam­i­lies in non-death penal­ty cas­es. They must endure more media cov­er­age, court appear­ances, and appeals, plus, often times, a rever­sal of the death sen­tence.” Viloria also point­ed to sys­temic prob­lems in the admin­is­tra­tion of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, writ­ing that the death penal­ty ​“is often uneven­ly and unfair­ly applied, part­ly because it is sought at the sole dis­cre­tion of a par­tic­u­lar pros­e­cu­tor or pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al admin­is­tra­tion. It is extreme­ly cost­ly to tax­pay­ers and, because the state has no drug sup­ply to admin­is­ter an exe­cu­tion, it is uncer­tain if Nevada can even car­ry out the death penal­ty.” Viloria urged the Nevada leg­is­la­tors to con­duct a hear­ing on the abo­li­tion bill ​“so law­mak­ers can decide the very seri­ous issue of whether to main­tain our bro­ken death penalty system.”

Legislatures in Nevada and Colorado are both con­sid­er­ing bills that would abol­ish the death penal­ty. Colorado’s bill, SB 19 – 182, passed the Senate Judiciary Committee by a 3 – 2 vote on March 6, 2019. Nevada’s bill, AB 149, has not yet received a hearing.

(Thomas E. Viloria, Time to kill death penal­ty in Nevada, Reno Gazette Journal, March 11, 2019; Mitchell Byars, Boulder DA in sup­port of lat­est bill call­ing for repeal of death penal­ty, Daily Camera, March 5, 2019.) See New Voices and Recent Legislative Activity.