DA Responds To Clemency Petition For Convicted Killer On Death Row
CENTENNIAL, Colo. (CBS4)- The district attorney of the office that prosecuted a man on death row is asking Gov. John Hickenlooper not to grant him clemency.
Nathan Dunlap was convicted and sentenced to die in 1996 for the shooting deaths of four workers who were cleaning a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant in Aurora after business hours. Three of the victims were teenagers. Dunlap, now 38 and then 19, had recently lost a job at the eatery.
The U.S. Supreme Court turned down Dunlap's last guaranteed appeal in February. This month, a judge scheduled Dunlap's execution for the week of Aug. 18, with the day to be set by the head of the Colorado Department of Corrections.
Dunlap's attorney has asked Hickenlooper to sign a petition for clemency that would call off the execution.
The district attorney filed a response to that petition on Friday.
The 31-page response includes some strong reaction from the DA, "For his lawyers to facilitate this charade in the name of "justice" is unfortunately... expected. For the defense lawyers to infer the defendant's race played a role in the DA's decision as a decoy to minimize the brutality of the defendant's conduct is shameful."
RESPONSE TO DUNLAP'S PETITION FOR CLEMENCY
The petition filed earlier this week includes an apology from Dunlap that reads in part, "I'm sorry for the pain and suffering I've caused the victims' families and friends. ... I'm sorry for the loss of life."
The petition includes letters of support for clemency from 15 retired judges, eight former prosecutors, numerous clergy, civil rights and mental health advocates and Dunlap's sister, Adinea M. Dunlap-Ashlock.
Dunlap-Ashlock's letter says she and her brother grew up in a dysfunctional family but offers no details. The petition states that Nathan Dunlap's mother touched him inappropriately and that his mother would experience manic episodes that terrorized her children.
