The Colorado legislature is currently debating a bill that, happily, will touch very few lives here in the Centennial State: Senate Bill 100, which would formally end the death penalty in Colorado. But for those touched by horrific crimes, the proposed change in the law may seem like a betrayal.

In some ways, the proposal to remove the death penalty from our state criminal code is symbolic, as we have not executed anyone since 1997, and Colorado’s current death row only contains three convicted killers. But as it is nationally, the death penalty debate here in Colorado is passionate, compelling and complicated.

A Colorado Politics article explained the current situation and the proposed new law. Nearly every previous legislative session has seen a bill proposing the abolition of the death penalty, but this year, with the Democrats controlling both chambers of the legislature and with Jared Polis in the governor’s chair, there is a real chance for Senate Bill 100 to become law.

So how do we feel about this? As is so often the case for me on key political questions, I admit to being conflicted. I do not mourn the passing of the likes of Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy. And I ache for the victims of appalling crimes. I’ve only been tangentially touched by such crimes, when a casual friend from my school was murdered in the 1970s. At that time, seeing the grief and pain inflicted by the killer, I wanted my pound of flesh, and likely would have supported the execution of the killer.

But we are a nation of laws, and we do not allow vengeance and outrage to guide the punishment of criminals. We demand fair trials for those accused, and we don’t let the families of the victims pick the method of execution when sentencing the guilty. Twenty states have moved away from the killing of prisoners, and Colorado appears poised to become the 21st. Given the passions of the day, it is not surprising that this proposed change to our laws is drawing a great deal of attention from all sides of the issue.

So, what do we know about the death penalty, really? Overwhelming evidence shows that it is not really a deterrent to crime. States without the death penalty have significantly lower murder rates than states that do. If the death penalty truly was a deterrent, Texas would be the safest place to live. And, by the way, I personally feel that a life in prison with no parole sentence is actually harsher than the death penalty, but that’s just me.

But there is a far more powerful argument against state-sponsored executions of criminals. Simply put, we are, all of us, human. And as a result, we make mistakes. Our judicial system is not perfect, and we occasionally send innocent people to prison. Such convictions are unfortunate, but there is a remedy, though admittedly an imperfect one – we can let the innocent out. In such cases, we as a state have taken time from these men and women, which is a terrible shame, but they do get to live free again. This doesn’t happen too often, as the cops and the courts are generally pretty good at arresting, trying, and convicting guilty people. But mistakes happen, especially when poverty, race, education and other factors kick in, appearing to strongly influence the manner in which the death penalty is applied. 

The advent of DNA testing and other forensic tools have helped prove people guilty but have also proven some accused to be innocent. But since 1973, more than 165 people – convicted of a crime and sentenced to death – have been proven innocent and released. 

And note that those 165+ were on death row, awaiting execution. Such exonerations strongly suggest that in the past, innocent people have, in fact, been executed by the state. In Texas, for example, in 2018 a total of 13 men were put to death, fully half of the total executed in the entire nation. And of the above noted 165+ people freed from death row as innocent, 13 of them were from Texas. It seems quite likely that an innocent person or two have been killed in the Longhorn state.

Back in 1994, after years of trying to find a fair, equitable, and unbiased way to administer the death penalty, then-Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun wrote of his frustration with the inevitable unfairness in the administration of the death penalty. Blackmun wrote, “From this day forward, I no longer shall tinker with the machinery of death.”

Colorado appears to be standing on the threshold of making an important though inevitably imperfect decision to eliminate the death penalty. I think that wise, as the price of executing the innocent is far too high. Here is an opportunity for us to help the moral arc of the universe to bend a bit more toward justice. I hope we succeed.

Hal Bidlack is a retired professor of political science and a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who taught more than 17 years at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.