Another Attempt Launched To Repeal Death Penalty In Colorado
DENVER (CBS4) - Another attempt to repeal the death penalty in Colorado was launched this week at the capitol.
Similar efforts haven't made it far in the past. It failed four years ago, and Senate Democratic leader Lucia Guzman, the lawmaker carrying it this year, knows it will fail again. But she says it's important to have the debate.
"I don't believe that we grow as individuals nor as society by killing someone who kills someone," Guzman said.
It's a debate one state lawmaker, Sen. Rhonda Fields, chose to sit out because she says the issue is much too personal and painful for her.
The Senate Judiciary Committee heard the bill on Wednesday. It's a committee Fields sits on.
"I think in order for the fairness of the process I should remove myself," Fields said.
Two of the three death row inmates in Colorado are the murderers of Field's son Javad.
"There's a constant hole in my heart knowing I don't celebrate his birthday, he's not there for Christmas and holidays and I'll never see him get married," she said.
Guzman says she respects Fields' decision, but she says repealing the death penalty is one of the reasons she ran for office.
"If someone is given life without parole, they have to stay there for the rest of their life. It also gives some small opportunity that they may not be the right person," Guzman said.
Arapahoe County District Attorney George Brauchler, the lead prosecutor in the Aurora movie theater shooting trial, says Colorado's law is the most difficult in the country to apply and is used sparingly for the worst of the worst.
"We don't do who-done-its. None of people on death row are people who we'd have any doubt at all were participants in heinous murders," he said.
"I think you can commit enough of a heinous act in this state that you forfeit everything you have and everything you're ever going to have, and I think most Coloradans agree with that sentiment."
Brauchler also disputes the argument that death penalty cases are more expensive to prosecute than life without parole cases.
Guzman says she thinks it's the responsibility of the legislature to take up the issue. She also supports taking it to voters as well.
