A Colorado Springs jury reject­ed a death sen­tence for Glen Law Galloway (pic­tured), mark­ing the third high-pro­file case since 2015 in which Colorado jurors have select­ed a life sen­tence over death. The ver­dict brought to an end El Paso County​’s first cap­i­tal pros­e­cu­tion in more than a decade, after a six-week tri­al in a court­room with a $50,000 makeover that includ­ed new audio and video tech­nol­o­gy and a remod­eled jury box enlarged to accom­mo­date six alter­nate jurors. 2,800 poten­tial jurors had received sum­mons­es to appear for ser­vice in the case. Prosecutors unsuc­cess­ful­ly attempt­ed to por­tray Galloway as an unre­pen­tent and remorse­less killer who, in the words of El Paso District Attorney Dan May, had com­mit­ted ​“two hor­rif­ic homi­cides.” They claimed that Galloway had killed a home­less man, Marcus Anderson, to steal his truck and silence him as a wit­ness, and then drove it to the house of his ex-girl­friend, Janice Nam, where he killed her to exact revenge for a stalk­ing con­vic­tion. The jurors found Galloway guilty of pre­med­i­tat­ed mur­der in Nam’s killing, but deter­mined that Anderson’s mur­der had not been pre­med­i­tat­ed and acquit­ted Galloway of aggra­vat­ed rob­bery, reject­ing the prosecution’s con­tention that he had killed Anderson to steal his truck. The same defense team that rep­re­sent­ed Aurora movie-the­ater shoot­er James Holmes pre­sent­ed more than thir­ty wit­ness­es in four days of tes­ti­mo­ny about Galloway’s char­ac­ter and back­ground, describ­ing to the jury how the for­mer Army vet­er­an ​“snapped” fol­low­ing the deto­ri­a­tion of his rela­tion­ship with Nam. Defense attor­neys pre­sent­ed mit­i­gat­ing evi­dence on Galloway’s harsh upbring­ing and his life in the Army, fol­lowed by a career in microchip man­u­fac­tur­ing. Denver pub­lic defend­er Daniel King, one of Galloway’s attor­neys, said Galloway was an oth­er­wise law-abid­ing per­son who trag­i­cal­ly lost con­trol. ​“Mr. Galloway is not just the worst thing that he’s done,” King said. ​“He’s com­mit­ted many acts of kind­ness, friend­ship, ser­vice, love and duty.” After five hours of delib­er­a­tion, the jury found that the mit­i­gat­ing evi­dence in the case out­weighed aggra­vat­ing evi­dence and sen­tenced Galloway to life. Colorado juries had pre­vi­ous­ly reject­ed death sen­tences for Holmes, who killed twelve peo­ple in a mass shoot­ing, and Dexter Lewis, who fatal­ly stabbed five peo­ple in a Denver bar. ​“Once again, a jury has told the gov­ern­ment that seek­ing the death penal­ty is a waste of everyone’s time,” said Phil Cherner, a retired attor­ney and chair­man of the board for Coloradans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. Colorado has not imposed a death sen­tence since 2010, and has not exe­cut­ed a pris­on­er since 1997. Governor John Hickenlooper declared a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions in 2013.

(Lance Benzel, No death penal­ty for dou­ble-killer Galloway, jury decides, Colorado Springs Gazette, July 3, 2018; Lance Benzel, Jurors reach ver­dict in Galloway death-penal­ty case in Colorado Springs, Colorado Springs Gazette, June 27, 2018; Andy Koen, Hundreds to be inter­viewed for jury duty in death penal­ty tri­al, KOAA News, Colorado Springs, March 7, 2018; Lance Benzel, Death penal­ty case could cause court­room remod­el­ing in Colorado Springs, Colorado Springs Gazette, August 21, 2017.) See Sentencing and Costs.

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