Re: Dec. 2 news story.
So I see that Arapahoe District Attorney George Brauchler is kicking off his 2018 gubernatorial campaign by seeking the death penalty against Brandon Johnson.
This is, as he must surely know, a waste of time and money. Last year he was unsuccessful in seeking to execute Aurora theater shooter James Holmes, while at the same time a Denver jury failed to agree to the death penalty for Dexter Lewis, who killed five individuals in a bar. Of the thousands of homicides over the last 48 years, only one defendant (Gary Davis, in 1999) has been executed. We have three individuals (all black) on death row. All from Arapahoe County.
Even if Brauchler somehow succeeds in achieving a death verdict, after spending untold millions to do so, it could be 20 years before there is even a potential execution. The only reason to waste these resources is obviously political.
Phil Cherner, Denver
The writer is a member of Coloradans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty’s Board of Directors.
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