Well done Colorado !!! - they've now joined the intelligent set and abolished Capital Punishment. Colorado becomes 22nd state to abolish death penalty Its last execution was in 1997, but eliminating it still proved tough for repeal supporters An American lethal injection chamber photographed in 2010 ( AP ) Colorado became the 22nd US state to abolish the death penalty on Monday, after Governor Jared Polis signed a repeal bill into law. Polis also commuted the sentences of all three men on Colorado's death row to life without possibility of parole. Colorado’s Democrat-controlled Legislature passed repeal legislation this year after picking up the support of some Republican lawmakers. The vote wasn’t strictly along party lines; some Democrats opposed the initiative on personal or religious grounds. Colorado has rarely used the death penalty in recent decades. Its last execution was in 1997, and the one before that in 1967. But eliminating it proved tough for repeal supporters: Since 2009, it took six legislative efforts before the 2020 legislation was passed. The law applies to offences charged starting 1 July. Polis had previously suggested he would consider clemency for the three men on Colorado's death row. The three cases played a prominent role in the death penalty debate over the years. Nathan Dunlap was sentenced to die for the shooting deaths of four young employees of a Chuck E Cheese restaurant in Aurora in 1993. Then-governor John Hickenlooper, now a Democratic candidate for a US Senate seat, delayed indefinitely Dunlap’s execution in 2013. Robert Ray and Sir Mario Owens were on death row for the 2005 ambush slayings of Javad Marshall-Fields and his fiancee, Vivian Wolfe. Marshall-Fields and Wolfe were slain to prevent them from testifying in a separate murder case against Owens. Marshall-Fields’ mother, Democratic state Senator Rhonda Fields, passionately defended the death penalty each time lawmakers debated repeal. In a statement, Polis said that “the commutations of these despicable and guilty individuals are consistent with the abolition of the death penalty in the State of Colorado, and consistent with the recognition that the death penalty cannot be, and never has been, administered equitably in the State of Colorado.” Opponents insisted that the death penalty compelled countless defendants to seek plea deals to solve or close cases. They also said it should be up to voters to decide whether to repeal. In Colorado's last execution in 1997, Gary Lee Davis was put to death by lethal injection for the 1986 kidnapping, rape and murder of a neighbour, Virginia May. New Hampshire was the last state to repeal the death penalty in 2019. Several Western states also have moved to abolish capital punishment or put it on hold. Wyoming’s Legislature came close last year, and another initiative there this year had 26 Republican sponsors. Washington state lawmakers are trying to remove the death penalty from state law. In 2019, New Mexico’s Supreme Court set aside the death penalty for the final two inmates awaiting execution after the state's 2009 repeal.
The worst thing we ever did here in the UK was abolish the death penalty, it was a bloody good deterrent, and I'll tell you another thing, I never heard of any repeat offenders, there's too many getting away with murder, quite literally these days and it needs to stop, prisons are like holiday camps and there's bugger all deterrents, a bloke drove his car like a twat and killed a mother and 3 kids, he got 8 years, that's 2 years per life, and he'll be out in half that, that's not justice, it's a piss take.
ABSOLUTELY NOT !!! We as a country have grown up to rise above the 'an eye for an eye' trend, and there have been far too many legal miscarriages of justice.
Well what is your solution? locking them up isn't working, they are too pampered and regard prison as a holiday, there's too many people being too soft now, oh they've got to have a toilet in each cell, and a telly, and a gym and pool table, oh and they don't have to work if they don't want to. Well sod it, they're in prison as a punishment it's not meant to be pleasant, perhaps if it was less pleasant they'd be less keen to go back. Also a 4 year sentence should mean 4 years, not 18 months, they get off too easy a lot of them. I've seen too often the consequences of idiot drivers, and seen them get off virtually scot free and it's wrong. our country is finished if we don't get a grip on law and order now, the number of people ignoring the lockdown should prove that, youngsters wandering the street with a 'nobody tells me I can't go out' attitude. Well if they get the virus they should be locked up somewhere with no treatment, that'll teach them! We've got the potential here for a lawless society and we don't need it, if they're going to let these idiots get away with stuff then just do away with the police and laws altogether, maybe these idiots who carry knives and rob people would think twice if there was a possibility of them getting stabbed or shot by their intended victim.
I agree. Even if it is only used as a deterrent. it is an extremely good one and may make a few murderers think twice. That incident that you mentioned is such a difficult one. A moment of reckless stupidity that will probably haunt the guy for the rest of his life. However, I think that the law should be changed to allow courts to impose a lifetime ban on driving for situations such as this. It would make idiot drivers, most of who love their cars, think about the possible consequences of their actions.
The problem with capital punishment is it's not used enough. I honestly don't see the point in keeping someone alive when they aren't ever leaving prison. Once you're pretty much made redundant to life in prison you don't have a life anymore and ain't no one gonna miss 'em. Fuck them.
It was ended a lot later than most people think, but it was originally suspended in the 1960's after a couple of high profile cases, the best known being Derek Bentley, he was a young man who, in the parlance of the day, was a bit 'simple', he went to burgle a warehouse with a younger lad who'd talked him into it, it all went wrong and the police arrived, Unfortunately for Derek Bentley, the younger lad, Christopher Craig, was carrying a revolver, and began to shoot at police, Bentley was arrested during the shootout and trying to bring the situation to an end, shouted to Craig, 'let him have it Chris', interpreted by most people as meaning give up the gun, Craig however fired, fatally wounding the officer, and he too was arrested, Christopher Craig was 16 years old and not considered an adult, Derek Bentley however was 19, and as such an adult, murder during the furtherance of a crime, as it was termed, carried a mandatory death sentence, the crux of the matter was Bentley telling Craig to 'let him have it', a lot of people took it to mean he was telling him to give up, unfortunately for Bentley, the jury saw it the other way and he was executed for the murder of the PC under joint enterprise, he was however posthumously pardoned years later. However although the death penalty for murder ended in I believe 1969 (1973 in Ireland), it did remain on the books for treason, piracy and arson in the royal dockyards until William Hague signed us up to the european convention on human rights, many many years later.
I don't believe capital punishment to be necessary or humane. Here is an excerpt... from Social Problems: Continuity & Change. 8.5 The Criminal Justice System – Social Problems I find it abhorrent.
No Judge Reyner Goddard who I mentioned in my first post. He was also a judge in the Court of Appeal in the case of Timothy Evans. Rayner Goddard, Baron Goddard - Wikipedia
I know Virginia May’s son. We forget, in fighting for a humane prison system, that there are others out there, others whose lives were shattered and have no appeal. Personally, I’m glad we abolished capital punishment. Now we need to look at creating a state society that never glorifies violence. And we need to focus on rehabilitation of convicts, with post release support, not the morass of gotcha traps we call parole.
