Juries in Colorado reluctant to impose the death penalty

An officer shot with two other officers as eyewitnesses would seem to be a certain death penalty conviction.

It’s not that simple, though.

Death penalties are difficult to obtain in Colorado, even for particularly cruel or violent crimes where there’s no doubt who the killer is.

There are two people on Colorado’s death row: Nathan Dunlap and Edward Montour Jr.

Dunlap was convicted and sentenced to death in 1996 for the murder of four employees at an Aurora Chuck E Cheese restaurant.

Montour pleaded guilty in 2003 to the murder of a correctional officer in a Colorado prison.

The state performed 77 executions between 1890 and 1967, according to the Colorado Department of Corrections. There were no executions in the state for the next 30 years. The last person executed was Gary Lee Davis on Oct. 13, 1997, for the 1986 rape and murder of a Byers ranch woman.

Legal experts said it’s hard to get a death penalty imposed because the final verdict, so to speak, is made by people.

“For some people, it’s just too hard to accept responsibility to do it,” said Bob Russel, 4th Judicial district attorney from 1965 to 1985. “It’s hard to get that unanimous verdict.”

Russel prosecuted five death penalty cases during his time as district attorney.

Perhaps the most high-profile was the 1984 conviction of Vernon Wayne Templeman, who shot and killed Colorado Springs police officer Mark Dabling in 1982.

Dabling was shot during a traffic stop, and Templeman was an escapee wanted on felony charges in at least two other states.

But two jurors decided they couldn’t impose the death penalty and decided on life in prison. Templeman, now 48, won’t be eligible for parole until 2044.

“We had a very strong case in that one,” Russel said. “He shot him in cold blood.”

The strength of the case, however, doesn’t guarantee a certain outcome. Russel said in his experience the average person doesn’t deal with lifeand-death situations too often, so it’s difficult when the time comes.

“You always get some people who say they can do it (impose the death penalty), but then they’re too soft when the time comes,” Russel said. “Those may be very good people, but they should not allow themselves onto a jury.”

Colorado Springs defense attorney Ann Kaufman, who successfully defended Anthony Jimenez against the death penalty for the 2000 killing of Jennifer Baker, said once jurors find out more about the defendant they see a flawed human rather than a monster.

“When they’re presented information about the accused in the penalty phase, they understand virtually everyone who gets to a place where they’ve taken a life has had a lifetime of abuse and had a horrible life themselves,” Kaufman said. “When they’re the one who has to make a decision, mercy and humanity comes into play.”

Kaufman said death penalty cases take much longer than other cases because, by law, there’s a “heightened due process when you take someone’s life.”

Russel said prosecutors must be extremely selective when seeking the death penalty.

“You can’t just take an ordinary murder case,” Russel said. “Primarily you pick cases that are extremely cruel.”

Gazette researchers Annie Mullin and Trudy Thomas contributed to

this report.

4TH DISTRICT DEATH PENALTY CASES

Some high-profile death penalty cases tried in the 4th Judicial District, which includes Teller and El Paso counties:

Anthony Jimenez

was convicted in 2004 of second-degree murder in the 2000 death of Jennifer Baker, 16. Prosecutors sought the death penalty in Jimenez’s first trial, which ended in a hung jury. They did not seek it for the second trial because they thought jurors had difficulty convicting him in the first trial while knowing they would have to decide whether he should be executed. He was sentenced to 54 years in prison.

George Woldt and his roommate, Lucas Salmon

were convicted in 2000 of kidnapping, raping and killing 22-year-old Jacine Gielinski in 1997. Woldt was sentenced to death by a three-judge panel that was used at the time. One of the judges on Salmon’s panel decided against the death penalty. In 2003, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that Colorado’s three-judge panel sentencing system was unconstitutional and Woldt’s sentence was converted to life without parole.

Eugene Baylis

of Peyton was accused of killing Paul “P.K.” Klein and Steven Fairfax, and wounding five others in an April 17, 1993, shooting spree at the now-defunct Jim & I’s Star Bar on North Nevada Avenue.

Baylis walked into the bar heavily armed after what he described as an altercation with a motorcyclist. Defense attorneys told jurors the bar was a hangout for the Sons of Silence motorcycle gang and Baylis was defending himself.

Baylis was acquitted of all charges except a federal weapons violation. He served less than a year in prison for possessing an illegal machine gun he used in the shooting rampage.

SOURCE: The Gazette