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Senate votes to keep death penalty
Sen. Jim Isgar says Colo. voters want to keep capital punishment
Herald Denver Bureau
Legislature at a glance
Here are highlights from Monday’s session of the Colorado General Assembly:
- The Colorado House scaled back a measure that would require anyone arrested for a felony to submit a DNA sample. Instead, lawmakers decided to turn the issue over to a task force to study this summer. Currently, only people who are convicted of crimes must submit DNA. Lawmakers rejected stronger measures after Rep. Paul Weissmann, D-Boulder, said there were too many questions and too many felonies that were covered by the bill.
- Gov. Bill Ritter signed two of his top-priority bills for job creation and business development from this session of the Legislature. The bills will provide tax incentives to companies that create new jobs and will strengthen job-training programs with industry and community colleges. Ritter also signed another bill that will require homebuilders to offer prospective homeowners the option of having their home prewired for solar energy and heating.
- The House has approved and sent to the governor a bill that would cut state funding to school districts that lower property taxes. The measure (Senate Bill 291) is a continuation of a partisan fight over a law passed two years ago by Democrats and Gov. Bill Ritter. It resulted in more local property tax dollars and less state money going to local schools. Under this year’s bill, the state would not make up for any revenue lost in districts that lower their property taxes. The state would continue to provide the same amount of aid it provides now.
- The House approved and sent to the Senate a plan that would set up a search committee when a president or chancellor position comes open at a state-funded university and require the committee to make the names of the finalists public. The bill (House Bill 1369) directs the search committee to review the applications and pick at least three qualified candidates to interview and select three nominees to send to the governing boards of the institutions.
– The Associated Press
House Bill 1274, which sought to repeal the death penalty and use the cost savings to fund a cold-case unit, still is alive. But senators voted to strip out language on the death penalty and instead focus on the cold-case unit. Money for the unit would come from a surcharge on traffic tickets.
If the Senate offers its final approval today, supporters would have one more chance to rescue the death-penalty repeal in a conference committee. The Legislature adjourns for the year Wednesday.
Opponents said the most violent criminals need to face the ultimate punishment.
"We're not talking about dollars and cents in this debate. We are talking about justice," said Sen. Ted Harvey, R-Highlands Ranch.
Supporters also argued on moral grounds.
"I do not like what the death penalty does to my soul, and I really don't like what it does to the nation's soul," said Sen. Bob Bacon, D-Fort Collins.
The amendment that gutted the bill came from a Democrat, Sen. John Morse of Colorado Springs. Morse, a former police chief, said he struggled mightily with how to vote on the bill.
A recorded vote wasn't taken Monday, and senators signaled their preference for the amendment by standing or sitting.
Five Democrats, including Sen. Jim Isgar, D-Hesperus, stood with Republicans for Morse's amendment.
Isgar said he doesn't like the death penalty and probably wouldn't be allowed on a death-penalty jury because he could never impose it himself.
"But the voters of Colorado have voted they want to keep it," Isgar said.
Voters in 1974 adopted the death penalty in Colorado. Since then, Colorado has executed only one inmate - Gary Lee Davis in 1997. Two men currently are on Colorado's death row - Nathan Dunlap and Sir Mario Owens. Both were convicted of metro-area murders.
HB 1294 is the closest Colorado has come in decades to repealing the death penalty. The House voted 33-32 for it April 22, and it passed the Senate State Affairs Committee 3-2 last week.
The Senate would have been the bill's last stop before Gov. Bill Ritter's desk.
Ritter has not said whether he would sign it.
jhanel@durangoherald.com
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