Death Penalty Repeal Proposed By Colorado Lawmakers
DENVER (CBS4)- Colorado lawmakers are are making their sixth attempt in the past 12 years to repeal the death penalty in Colorado by introducing a new bill. The proposal is getting bipartisan support.
Co-sponsors of SB20-100, Sen. Julie Gonzales, a Democrat representing Denver, and Sen. Jack Tate, a Republican representing Centennial, are calling for capital punishment to be abolished in our state.
"It is more determinative in the state of Colorado the color of your skin, where you were charged, the quality of your attorney, your socioeconomic status is more determinative as to whether or not you will be sentenced to the death penalty or not," Gonzales told CBS4.
The bill would apply to offenses charged on or after July 1, 2020. Then, the death penalty would not be a sentencing option for a defendant convicted of a Class 1 felony.
The last person executed under the death penalty, Gary Davis, was in 1997. Davis was a convicted murderer and rapist executed at the Colorado State Penitentiary in Canon City. He is the only person to date to have been subject to the death penalty in Colorado since its reinstatement in 1977.