In capital murder trials that both ended last month, Dexter Lewis, left, and James Holmes were each given sentences of life without parole. Lewis killed five people at Fero’s bar in Denver on Oct. 17, 2012; Holmes killed 12 people and injured 70 others at an Aurora movie theater on July 20, 2012. (The Denver Post)
Two cases with outrageous facts. Two denials of the death penalty. Add to those cases the temporary reprieve that Gov. John Hickenlooper gave Nathan Dunlap.
Is the death penalty really the issue? Or is it the system by which the death penalty is imposed that is the issue? The public sees prosecutors not prosecuting police brutality cases, untruthful public servants not getting punished, and a legal system where ethical rules such as the Code of Judicial Conduct are not enforced. Then members of the public are asked to impose the death penalty. Is the death penalty simply too great a penalty in such a fallible system?
An analysis of the two recent death penalty denials without focusing on the level of integrity in the legal system is not seeing the forest for the trees.
Chris Forsyth, Wheat Ridge
This letter was published in the Sept. 6 edition.Once again, a jury of our peers in Colorado has rejected the governmentap request to kill one of its citizens, Dexter Lewis. Colorado’s death penalty is a bankrupt public policy. The death penalty exacts a huge toll on the families of murder victims, is unfairly and capriciously applied, is racially biased, and costs millions in taxpayer dollars. All this, with no deterrent effect on criminal behavior. The deliberate killing of a person by the government is never an appropriate form of justice in a nation that respects the value of human life.
We take no joy in the outcome of the trial. Lewis will serve the rest of his life in prison and the victim families are left with shattered lives.
It is time for Colorado to repeal the death penalty.
Phil Cherner, Denver
The writer is an attorney and a member of the Coloradans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty Foundation’s board of directors.
This letter was published in the Sept. 6 edition.Re: “Dexter Lewis verdict sends a message on Colorado’s death penalty,” Aug. 28 editorial.
The Denver Postap editorial board has gone on a sanctimonious diatribe on the death of the death penalty in Colorado. The Post writes: “The death penalty in Colorado has effectively expired. … It happened because juries themselves wanted no part of it.”
The fact is that 60 percent of Coloradans favor the death penalty. Imagine a presidential election where 60 percent of the electorate votes for a candidate but the winner proves to be the candidate with 40 percent of the vote. Why? Just because. We would have anarchy. That is not how a democracy is supposed to work. The fact is that if just one bleeding-heart juror or bleeding-heart governor wants to vote “no” on the death penalty, the will of the majority is simply tossed aside.
Gary Harlan, Denver
This letter was published in the Sept. 6 edition.Somebody, somewhere, is going to conclude, from the sentencing results of two recent trials, that if you want to commit an indescribably heinous and horrible crime, come to Colorado to do so. The worst-case scenario is you’ll get free room and board for the rest of your life. There is something horribly wrong with that picture. Must death sentences be unanimous by a jury? We need to take a long, prayerful look at this whole situation.
Floyd Scharlemann, Broomfield
This letter was published in the Sept. 6 edition.Although the polls indicate that a majority of Coloradans approve of the death penalty in first-degree murder cases, it takes only one-twelfth of the population to get themselves on juries to control the death penalty. And, considering life and death, maybe thatap the way it should be in a civilized society.
Edward Hawkins, Denver
This letter was published in the Sept. 6 edition.
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