Twenty-five Years Ago this week in The Colorado Statesman … The lawyer who led a successful constitutional challenge against Colorado’s death penalty law said no one should have been surprised that the Colorado Supreme Court overturned the statute, pointing out that some legislators had warned it was defective when it passed. University of Denver law professor Jeff Pagliuca, a defense attorney when he launched the lawsuit, blamed legislators who were too anxious to ensure death penalty sentences for cutting corners when they updated state law three years earlier. Still, Gov. Roy Romer and Denver District Attorney Norm Early professed shock that the 1988 legislation was found to violate constitutional prohibitions on cruel and unusual punishment in a 4-3 decision of the high court. Writing for the majority, Justice George Lohr said the three-step requirement for jurors lacked an essential fourth step included in an earlier version of the statute that had passed constitutional muster. The three steps included determining that a defendant had been convicted of a Class 1 felony, that particular aggravating circumstances existed and that there were insufficient mitigating factors. If jurors decided those factors were perfectly balanced, the law mandated imposition of a death sentence. According to Pagliuca, the crucial fourth step – removed by legislators a few years earlier – had been to require jurors to determine beyond a reasonable doubt that death was the appropriate sentence, something the high court had called necessary in another ruling. Pressed by prosecutors to remove barriers to capital punishment, state Sen. Ray Powers, R-Colorado Springs, had sponsored the 1988 death penalty rewrite, ignoring the warnings of state Rep. Jerry Kopel, D-Denver, that he was risking constitutional peril. Romer said he planned to include a death penalty bill in his call for a special session scheduled for September but, reporter Dan Grossman wrote, it was doubtful that Powers would be asked to sponsor the legislation. …

… First son Neil Bush told Republican cohorts at a secretive luncheon at the University Club that he was leaving the oil and gas industry and was moving to Houston to take a job in cable television. Around 20 GOP bigwigs gathered to “roast and toast” Bush and munch on green salad, steak sandwiches with onion rings, roasted potatoes and green beans while they were at it. Bush had high praise for his decade in Denver but lamented that the energy industry wasn’t faring well, so it was time to bail out. He also said he was sorry for any problems he’d caused Colorado Republicans and hoped his highly publicized role in the Silverado Savings & Loan debacle hadn’t embarrassed any of his friends. State GOP chairman Bruce Benson was out of town, but Bush confidants at the event included Denver Republican chair Kathie Finger, Douglas County GOP chair Tony Johnson, Adams County Republican chair Hal Shroyer, El Paso County GOP chair Carley Johnson, Republican National Committeeman Jim Nicholson, former state Republican chairs Carl Williams and Jean Tool, Senate President Ted Strickland, House Speaker Chuck Berry, Superintendent of the Mint Barb McTurk and Republican Party finance whiz Barb Card. …

… Author Joyce Schuck’s new book, “Political Wives, Veiled Lives,” shined a light on the role of political spouses – the female variety, at least – inspired in part by detailed journals she kept when her husband, Colorado Springs developer Steve Schuck, ran for governor on the GOP ticket in 1986. The book documented the evolving role of political wives, starting with the outmoded 1950s system through the feminist revolution. Schuck took aim at the public and its demand for maintaining illusions about the family lives of politicians, as well as the media and its propensity to jump on accidental gaffes. “My journal became my unconditional friend,” she wrote. “It became my one avenue of freedom.” As the gubernatorial campaign progressed, she had less and less privacy, her time subject to schedulers and image managers. “I am constantly being scheduled to go to one place or another. No thought seems to be given to my needs or desires. I either go here or there, and if I choose not to go someplace, I sense that I am looked upon as not being supportive.” Linda Campbell, wife of U.S. Rep. Ben Campbell, told Schuck she refused to participate and “totally hated the campaign.” Dottie Lamm remembered facing disappointed crowds who had shown up to see her husband, then-Gov. Dick Lamm. “I wanted to tell them, ‘You’ve got me, buddy, and that’s all you’re going to see.'” Wren Wirth described her life as U.S. Sen. Tim Wirth’s very public wife as “a black hole that engulfs your time and energy.” She said the role of wives had changed over the years, though: “We women no longer pour tea or wear white gloves.” When Schuck passed along Wirth’s quote to Barbara Bush, however, the first lady chuckled and said, “Oh, we still pour tea. But now we do it with our bare hands.” …

… The first annual Pallid Persuaders picnic had been a smashing success, bringing together a passel of political consultants and politicos at the home of Mike and Sally Stratton. Those snacking on burgers and barbecued chicken included Denver City Councilors Bill Scheitler, Tim Sandos and Mary DeGroot and consultants Rick Reiter, Cole Finegan, John Frew, Mike Dino, Will Dupree, Jim Monaghan, Sherry Keene-Osborn, Bill Kenyon, Doug Goodyear, Floyd Ciruli and BJ Thornberry. The party included a contest asking attendees who had said some zingers, including, “Not slick, just good …” and “George Bush won’t choose a female running mate because then people would say, ‘We need a man on the ticket.'” Door prizes included an “I need a miracle” notebook for Finegan and a T-shirt reading “Talent does what it can; Genius does what it must; and I do what I get paid to do” for Ciruli.