Politics & Government
Death Penalty Repeal: Colo. Democrats Poised To Bring Legislation
Capitol Dems say 'full steam ahead' on legislation this year. "A flat-out repeal of the death penalty," said Sen. Angela Williams
DENVER, CO – By John Herrick for The Colorado Independent. Twenty states have banned or suspended the death penalty, and this could be the year Colorado joins them. Public support for capital punishment is declining. And Democrats, some of whom campaigned on doing away with state-sponsored executions, now control state government.
Sen. Lois Court of Denver will support such legislation, but she knows passage is never assured. She recalls the painful path a similar bill took in 2013 — one year after the deadly Aurora theater shootings, when, like this year, Democrats held the statehouse and the governor’s mansion.
Court, then a state representative, remembers sitting in the bill’s final committee hearing. She opposed capital punishment then, as she does now. But back in 2013, events, public mood and perhaps politics played a role the committee’s ultimate decision to reject the repeal bill.
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Before the vote was called, Court pointed out to fellow committee members that voters did not ask lawmakers to repeal the death penalty that year. And, she said, the governor at the time, John Hickenlooper, was conflicted on the issue, signaling he might veto the bill. Adding to the fraught atmosphere in the committee room was the presence of Rep. Rhonda Fields, whose son, Javad Marshall-Fields, was murdered in 2005. Fields, who is now a senator, supported the prosecutors’ decision to seek the death penalty, and still does today.
You could “feel the weight” in the room, as one lawmaker put it.
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When the roll was called to kill the bill, Court sighed, “yes.”
Six years later, Court says, the situation is different. Public support is swinging against capital punishment, as evidenced by the recent election of Attorney General Phil Weiser, who campaigned against capital punishment. So, too, did some newly elected Democratic lawmakers. And, Court said, Gov. Jared Polis is on board.
“The governor now says he’ll sign it,” Court said, now the Senate president pro tempore. “Full steam ahead.”
READ MORE in The Colorado Independent
Sen. Lois Court of Denver in her office on Feb. 6, 2019. (Photo by John Herrick)