May 06, 2009 05:15 PM UTC

Death Penalty Repeal's Last Stand

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• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE #3: House Bill 1274 fails Senate by one vote.

UPDATE #2: Ritter breaks silence, essentially says he will veto House Bill 1274 as presently written. Developing.

UPDATE: Rumors of the death penalty ban’s demise appear to have been exaggerated, breaking Denver Post:

Lawmakers this morning put a ban on the death penalty back into a bill providing funding to solve cold case murders, setting up their colleagues for politically tricky votes on the controversial topic on the final day of the session.

The House in April passed by one vote the original version of House Bill 1274, which would have ended capital punishment and used the savings to build a cold case task force within the Colorado Bureau of Investigations.

The Senate, which has not voted the death penalty up or down, earlier this week took out the death penalty ban and instead implemented a $2.50 fee on anyone convicted of a traffic, misdemeanor or felony offense to pay for grants to local police jurisdictions.

Final votes coming. Original post follows.

AP reports:

The fight over a proposal to abolish the death penalty in Colorado is going down to the wire.

State lawmakers plan to meet this morning, the final day of the legislative session, to decide whether to revive a bill that originally would have ended the death penalty and used the savings to fund a statewide cold case unit.

That bill unraveled this week in the Senate where lawmakers voted to scrap the death penalty ban and instead impose a series of new fees to fund investigations of unsolved cases.

The original bill is sponsored by Rep. Paul Weissmann, D-Boulder, and Sen. Morgan Carroll, D-Aurora, both strong opponents of the death penalty. They expect the conference committee appointed by House and Senate leaders to work out the differences between the chambers will recommend putting the death penalty ban back in the bill. They think the fines to fund cold cases mainly on the local level could also be included.

“The debate isn’t over. This bill isn’t over,” Carroll said.

Liberal activist group Progress Now, one of the main proponents of House Bill 1274, sent a blast email out last night with targets to call and a strong “it isn’t over yet” message. What are the odds of reverting the bill to its original language, folks? Get your predictions in quick, we’ll know how you did in a few hours.