February 24, 2009 06:39 PM UTC

Death Penalty Abolition Passes Committee

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• by: Colorado Pols

As the Denver Post reports:

A House committee Monday night, after hearing hours of emotional testimony, approved a bill that would ban the death penalty in Colorado.

In a more than six-hour hearing before the House Judiciary Committee, families of murder victims along with former prosecutors and others argued for and against HB 1274, which would make life in prison without parole the highest punishment available to prosecutors.

Under the bill, sponsored by House Majority Leader Paul Weissmann, D-Louisville, any savings from not trying the expensive cases in court would go to investigating unsolved homicides.

“You can debate the morals (of the death penalty) forever,” Weissmann said. “You can debate the question of deterrence forever.”

But what can’t be debated is the cost savings from not pursuing the death penalty, which Weissmann estimated to be millions of dollars per year…

A poll follows.

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