It is possible that 4th Judicial District Attorney Dan May will elect to pursue the death penalty against accused Planned Parenthood shooter Robert Dear Jr.
The case is, as Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Colo., said recently, “ripe for a death penalty prosecution.”
Capital punishment can be considered under Colorado law if, among other things, multiple people were killed, if a law enforcement officer is killed or if the killing was a hate crime.
All three factors were in play in Colorado Springs.
Charges are expected to be filed against Dear on Wednesday, with the decision on the death penalty still months away. But if May does decide to pursue a death penalty, we hope he’d be open to accepting a plea deal from the defense — if an offer is then forthcoming — for a sentence of life in prison without possibility of parole.
Such a deal would spare everyone a protracted trial with an uncertain outcome, not to mention the huge expense.
Earlier this year, two cases that should have been ideal in many ways for the death penalty were rejected by jurors — even though potential jurors are screened to ensure they can apply the ultimate penalty if the facts call for it.
James Holmes, who murdered 12 people and injured 70 in an Aurora theater, was instead sentenced to life in prison without possibility for parole. Dexter Lewis, who killed five people in Fero’s Bar in Denver, was also given life in prison without possibility for parole.
Even in conservative El Paso County, a jury trial will be faced with the same uncertain outcome.
Is it reasonable for the state to spend millions of dollars on defending and prosecuting a capital punishment case that has a strong chance of ending without a death sentence?
A recent said it has spent $6.3 million on 10 death penalty cases since 2002.
In the Holmes case alone, prosecutors say they spent up to $1.5 million in state and federal funds and the bills are still being tabulated. That doesn’t include how much the cases have cost other agencies, such as sheriff’s departments and prosecutors.
Both the Holmes and Lewis cases spanned three years from crime to verdict and accomplished little in terms of the eventual punishment that might not have been achieved earlier with a plea bargain.
Why put victims, families and jurors through the emotional hell of a prolonged trial if it’s not necessary?
That’s especially true because it’s unlikely Dear would ever actually be executed even if he were found guilty and got the death penalty. He is 57. If he were convicted at, say, 59 or 60, his attorneys could probably delay an execution for a couple of decades at least.
By which time most people might wonder: What was the point?
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