Journalist of 30 years shares experience with death penalty.
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The Aurora theater killer is in a diagnostic jail facility as authorities decide where to put him for the rest of his life.
Most folks I run into want to discuss his fate. They say they hope he somehow ends up in the general prison population so that the other prisoners will take care of him. Or that he鈥檒l find a way to do himself in. Others say they want for him to get his Ph.D. and study his own mental illness.
Life goes on.
Reporters have scattered and I will bet that some of them are wondering why they can鈥檛 get excited about returning to their old lives, covering traffic backups and Bronco post-game reactions.
The Arapahoe County Justice Center still has a significant caseload as a stream of offenders slough through the metal detector, snaking off their belts with citations in hand. Others, in juror badges, ride the elevators.
Issues trail the trial like dust from Pigpen鈥檚 shoes.
What will happen with听the death penalty in Colorado? 听Two thoughts have emerged:
1. The death penalty听is going down.听We鈥檝e now had two death penalty trials in less than a month that听ended with life in prison for the defendants. 听(The Holmes case and the trial of Dexter Lewis, convicted of stabbing five people to death in a Denver bar and setting the business on fire.) Both were decided by at least one juror, who canceled out the decisions of the other 11.
听1a 鈥� 鈥淪o what? If you can鈥檛 get twelve people to be killed by the state, you don鈥檛 have it!鈥� ~ David Kaplan, former head of the Office of the Colorado Public Defender.
2. The jury system that听decides the death penalty needs to be changed in Colorado.听
2a- 鈥淔rom our standpoint, I don鈥檛 think any of the evidence could have come out any better than it did.听It is what it is. You just need one.鈥� ~ George Brauchler, Arapahoe County District Attorney
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I expect for this to be a contentious issue put before the Colorado legislature very soon. We may see it on the ballot in 2016. 听But this is not a new subject. 听The most recent attempts to repeal the death penalty failed in 1999, 2009 and 2013.
I should mention that I was one of five members of the media selected to witness Colorado鈥檚 last execution, that of Gary Lee Davis. That was nearly 20 years ago, on October 听13, 1997.
Me (Carol McKinley) as a KOA radio reporter, getting into the media van at 10 p.m.听to go witness Davis鈥檚 execution.
I remember sitting in a cold room waiting to see if then-Governor Roy Romer would grant a stay of execution for Davis. We watched as the secondhand on the clock ticked that last sixty seconds from 11:59 to midnight.
I remember his appeal attorney鈥檚 flaming red dress and matching nail polish. It was a striking outfit, worn so that Davis could pick her out in the small crowd sitting in uncomfortable chairs to watch him die.
I remember, too, when theater-like curtains pulled open to reveal Davis strapped to a metal table. His huge head turned听to look our way. His eyes found his attorney right away. He turned his head back to stare at the door frame in front of him. That鈥檚 where his gaze stayed until he died.
I remember the whisper behind me the moment Davis鈥檚 face turned blue and the curtains pulled closed. 鈥淧ut here there,鈥� prosecutor Bob Grant said to the father of the woman Davis brutally murdered. 鈥淲e got her done,鈥� answered victim Ginny May鈥檚 sweet, sad, soft spoken dad.
I remember the dinner Ginny鈥檚 family had for me when I went out to interview them before the execution. It was taco pie casserole in a huge dish on a farm table and it was delicious. They were so heartbroken over the loss of her.
Gary Davis 鈥� one victim.
Dexter Lewis 鈥� 5 victims.
James Holmes 鈥� 12 victims.
One day, in the parking lot of the Arapahoe County Justice Center, someone called to me from the rows of parked cars. It was Craig Truman, the attorney who听defended Gary Davis.
鈥淗ow鈥檚 the trial going鈥�? he asked.
I told him 听we were waiting for a verdict in the first phase: guilty or not guilty by reason of insanity. He told me that Davis only wanted to fight his execution because he thought his appeals attorney was 鈥渉ot.鈥�
That鈥檚 a real eye-roller. But it鈥檚 probably true.
I didn鈥檛 have much problem watching Davis die, short of a few nightmares. So should the cruel mass murderer who broke so many lives when he opened fire in a crowded theater die? It doesn鈥檛 matter what I think about him. What matters is whether we鈥檒l give the death penalty some thought if we get the chance to vote: will we give life to death, or听bump it off?