A CNN documentary on the Nathan Dunlap capital punishment case is set to air Sunday . That’s when a yet-to-be-aired interview with Gov. John Hickenlooper surfaced, and in it he suggested he could grant the convicted killer clemency.
Gov. John Hickenlooper made his position on the death penalty clear in a Sunday TV interview. (Lewis Geyer/Times-Call)
The episode of “Death Row Stories” is scheduled to premier at 8 p.m. Mountain time on the television news channel.
The governor’s campaign said Hickenlooper’s comments during the CNN interview do not represent any altering in Hickenlooper’s sentiments from a May 2013 indefinite reprieve he granted to Dunlap.
In the CNN interview, Hickenlooper said he didn’t want the Dunlap case to become a “political football” and that “We won’t let that happen.” Hickenlooper told CNN it would be “unacceptable” for anyone to make the death penalty — specifically the Dunlap case — into a campaign point.
“If that becomes a political issue in that context within the campaign, obviously there is a period of time between the election and the end of the year where individuals can make decisions, such as governors can,” Hickenlooper said in the interview.
Hickenlooper’s Republican challenger in the November election, Bob Beauprez, has vowed to execute Dunlap if elected.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez celebrates after winning the GOP primary at an election party in Denver on June 24, 2014. (Ed Andrieski, Associated Press)
Joey Bunch and I took a look at the death penalty as a possible factor in this year’s gubernatorial election. You can find that story here: “.”
Meanwhile, the attacking Hickenlooper’s quirkiness. In it, a person holds a cue card for the governor that says “STOP SAYING CLEMENCY.”
