capital punishment
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Out West Roundup: Refugees thank adoptive North Dakota city by feeding hungry
North Dakota Refugees thank adoptive North Dakota city by feeding hungry FARGO, North Dakota – Maria Modi’s journey from South Sudan to a new life in Fargo included a stop at a refugee camp in Cairo. She and her seven siblings know what it is like to be hungry. “My mother and father work 12-hour…
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Out West Roundup: Utah town headed toward keeping booze prohibition
Utah Utah town headed toward keeping booze prohibition SALT LAKE CITY – One of Utah’s last “dry” communities is on track to maintain its eight-decade prohibition on alcohol sales after voters rejected a measure to allow sales that proponents said would boost tourism and opponents said would threaten the small city’s way of life. Following…
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Guzman: ‘I came to the Legislature to repeal the death penalty’
Senate Minority Leader Lucia Guzman’s death penalty repeal bill was voted down by Republicans in committee Feb. 15, just as she expected. Speaking before the hearing, Guzman said she hoped mainly that the bill would foster heartfelt conversation on the issue. “It was not to be,” she said. She thinks she might have pulled off…
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Nicolais: Dylann Roof, absolutists and the death penalty
Dylann Roof is set to die. A federal jury recently sentenced the unapologetic mass-murderer to the death penalty. More than any other individual, his case brings the contrast between political positions on capital punishment to a head. Roof’s sentence draws a clear distinction between pure death penalty opponents and anyone who struggles with the issue. I find…
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Nicolais: Death sentence gone awry
Every law school student loves to argue. Most see reflections of Gregory Peck or Spencer Tracy in their mirrors. And, in my law school experience, nothing brought about an argument as fast and as fierce as the death penalty. Stakes cannot be greater or an outcome more final. I even remember former Illinois Gov. George…
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Lundberg bill signals continuing divide over death penalty policy
The Republican-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee voted down a bill Wednesday that would have made it less difficult for juries to deliver the death sentence in Colorado. Opponents of the bill who packed the hearing room celebrated the committee’s decision and the swing vote cast by Chairperson Ellen Roberts, a Republican from Durango. “I was dumbfounded…