Criminal Sentencing and Punishment

Video shows Evan Ebel shooting Texas deputy

Yesterday, in announcing a reprieve for quadruple murderer Nathan Dunlap noted that Lisa Clements remains against the death penalty even after what happened to her husband, the late Colorado prison chief Tom Clements. What happened to Clements is that Evan Ebel allegedly murdered him, then took off ... More >>

Photos: Ten prisoners whose death penalties were switched to life

Yesterday's decision by Governor John Hickenlooper to grant murderer Nathan Dunlap a reprieve from the death penalty -- one that will stand as long as Hickenlooper is in office but can be reversed by successors -- doesn't stand alone. As noted by the Death Penalty Information Center, more than 270 d ... More >>

John Hickenlooper gives Nathan Dunlap reprieve from death but doesn't grant clemency

Moments ago, Governor John Hickenlooper announced his decision regarding the scheduled execution of Nathan Dunlap, who was convicted in 1996 of killing four people and seriously wounding a fifth during an assault three years earlier at a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant. Rather than granting clemency, as ... More >>

Nathan Dunlap: Mom of victim Ben Grant latest to call for killer to die

We've been covering a clemency bid by Nathan Dunlap, who killed four people at a Chuck E. Cheese in 1993; see our previous coverage below. Yesterday, we shared a letter to Governor John Hickenlooper by a woman who was scheduled to work at the restaurant on the fateful evening but took the night off ... More >>

Nathan Dunlap clemency bid: "No principled reason" to execute quadruple murderer

The decision by attorneys for accused Aurora theater shooter James Holmes to enter a not guilty by reason of insanity plea seems motivated mainly by an effort to avoid the death penalty. Those representing Nathan Dunlap, convicted of killing four people at a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant in 1993, are ... More >>

Ken McGill: Read lawsuit of inmate who suffered stroke in jail, wasn't treated for 24 hours

On September 17, 2012, as detailed in this week's cover story, "Life Sentence," Ken McGill suffered a stroke while incarcerated at Jefferson County Detention Facility for a DUI, and he told everyone he could about it. In response, he was forced to spend the night on the floor of solitary confinement ... More >>

Edward Montour guilty plea ruling: David Lane on death penalty, James Holmes, "bloody 18th"

At a February hearing, Edward Montour sought to withdraw his guilty plea for a 2002 murder in an effort to avoid the death penalty he'd previously sought. The office of 18th Judicial District DA George Brauchler, who's also seeking death for accused Aurora theater shooter James Holmes, argued agains ... More >>

Photos: Ten executions gone horribly wrong

Capitol punishment has made plenty of news in Colorado lately, thanks to a failed attempt to ban the practice and 18th Judicial District DA George Brauchler's pledge to seek seek the death penalty against accused Aurora theater shooter James Holmes. But what about when executions go wrong? CU Profe ... More >>

James Holmes's court filing about guilty-plea offer a publicity ploy, prosecution says

Update by Melanie Asmar: Was James Holmes's court filing stating that he was willing to plead guilty to avoid the death penalty a publicity stunt? That's the allegation being made by prosecutors in a response to Holmes's filing (on view below). The filing, they wrote, "appears to be an attempt to ... More >>

Death penalty battle heats up at the State Capitol

In more than eight hours of emotional testimony that stretched well into the evening, activists and faith groups seeking to abolish the death penalty in Colorado squared off against prosecutors and other backers of the ultimate punishment yesterday -- with family members of homicide victims speaking ... More >>

The five best jail-inspired musician memoirs

Pop culture incrementally improved the chances that books would outlive CDs when news spread that Lil Wayne had inked a deal to write a memoir about the eight months he spent locked up on gun charges. Titled Gone 'Til November, the book is scheduled to be released in May. While the hip-hop blogosphe ... More >>

The lifers book club: Of mice and men, hopes and regrets at the Limon prison

See also: The ten best books about America's prisons

The ten best books about America's prisons

This week's cover story, "The Lifers Book Club," reports on the Words Beyond Bars Project, a pilot progam at the Limon Correctional Facility that puts high-security prisoners, many of them serving life sentences, in a room with volunteers to discuss great books. It's a modest effort that could trans ... More >>

Death penalty: Representative Claire Levy says she is confident a repeal could pass

Before Representative Claire Levy proposes legislation to repeal the death penalty in Colorado, she wants to be sure that it can pass. And after more discussions with her fellow lawmakers on the topic, she says it seems like the momentum is right to get rid of the death penalty -- even if one of h ... More >>

Death penalty: As legislators consider repeal, John Morse says he's now supportive

With the new year comes a new legislative session, and there's already talk about a potential effort to repeal the death penalty in Colorado. And John Morse, a Democrat and the new president of the Senate, says he is likely to support a repeal. This would be a major shift from his previous stance ... More >>

Bob Autobee "drops out" of death penalty battle for son's killer, Edward Montour

Frustrated by a decade of legal delays and setbacks, the father of slain state corrections officer Eric Autobee says that he now opposes further efforts to obtain the death penalty for inmate Edward Montour Jr. for the 2002 murder. In a recent interview, Bob Autobee also blasted the leadership of th ... More >>

Will juvenile lifers get a second chance?

See also: Johnathan Jordan letter clears co-defendant in murder -- but will anyone believe it?

Damien Echols on the West Memphis Three, exoneration and Life After Death

Is there life after death? After eighteen years behind bars for a crime he didn't commit, most of them spent in the debilitating confines of death row, Damien Echols plans to find out. In 1993 Echols, then eighteen, and two other Arkansas teenagers were arrested and charged with the murders of thre ... More >>

Edward Montour: The other death-penalty decision facing the new DA

This week's feature, "Lethal Election," explores how the race for district attorney in the 18th Judicial District has drawn a national spotlight because the winner will have to decide whether to pursue the death penalty in prosecuting James Holmes, the suspect in the Aurora theater shootings. It's a ... More >>

Gary Lee Davis: Colorado's last volunteer for the death penalty

This week's feature, "The Happiest Man on Death Row," delves into Colorado's execution of Joe Arridy, a man with an IQ of 46, for a murder he almost certainly didn't commit. It happened in the 1930s, when the state's gas chamber was kept busy with a string of customers. But times are different now, ... More >>

Eddie Ives's botched execution and replacing the noose with the gas chamber

This week's cover story, "The Happiest Man on Death Row," examines the 1939 execution of Joe Arridy, a Pueblo man with an IQ of 46, for a murder he probably didn't commit -- and the twenty-year battle by author Robert Perske to clear his name. Although the miscarriage of justice in Arridy's case is ... More >>

Troy Anderson lawsuit: Supermax must provide outdoor rec, judge rules

In what amounts to a landmark decision, a federal judge has ruled that the conditions of solitary confinement at the Colorado State Penitentiary constitute "a paradigm of inhumane treatment" and must change -- notably, so that inmates locked down in their cells 23 hours a day can have at least three ... More >>

Aurora theater shooting: Carol Chambers, James Holmes and the death penalty

At his next court appearance, on Monday, suspected Aurora theater shooter James Holmes is expected to be formally charged by a prosecution team fronted by 18th Judicial District DA Carol Chambers. Our Alan Prendergast is an expert on Chambers thanks to feature articles such as "The Punisher," so it' ... More >>

Sucker Punch: The "Big Bitch" could bite fighting concert-goer

Video: Mayhem Festival clips capture events before assault

Guy Cruz, probation officer, allegedly told woman no sex = jail

Guy Cruz is no longer a probation officer for the 4th Judicial District, and neither he is a high school tennis coach, the next gig he took up. But the Pueblo resident is in big trouble for allegedly threatening a parolee with jail or a loss of access to her son if she didn't get horizontal with him ... More >>

Troy Anderson lawsuit: Supermax conditions draw criticism from judge

After nearly five days of testimony in a lawsuit brought by Troy Anderson, a prisoner who's been in solitary confinement for twelve years, a Denver federal judge was strongly urging Colorado Department of Corrections officials to fix the harshest conditions at the state's supermax prison -- before h ... More >>

Jeffrey Wells, parole officer, accused of forgery to keep arrestees in jail longer

Jeffrey Wells, a Department of Corrections parole officer based in Grand Junction, is well regarded by his fellow employees, who recently named him top employee of the quarter. But he's less venerated by John Morgan and three other parolees, who are currently suing him for allegedly forging document ... More >>

Prison rape: Justice Department says poor design, training, attitudes fuel assaults

Last year a federal review panel heard some amazing excuses from corrections officials about why their jails and prisons have exceptionally high rates of sexual assault. One sheriff even claimed inmates were faking stories of rape in order to get cookies from researchers.

DIY prison play In the Belly shows aggressive scenes of life inside

On a particularly frigid night in the winter of 2009, Weslie Coleman, Kate Pleuss and Ben Turk were sitting in their collective home and talking about how cold they were. Incredibly cold, they decided. So the three members of the revolutionary theater group Insurgent Theatre decided to plan an escap ... More >>

ACLU, faith groups urge governors not to sell out to private prison giant

A broad proposal by the country's largest private prison company to buy up and privatize state prisons has been met with a stiff rebuke from the American Civil Liberties Union and a coalition of justice policy and religious groups, who are urging all fifty state governors to reject the company's "in ... More >>

Sixteen-year-old Tara Perry followed her man into crime and madness

Underwear bomber to join list of ten most notorious prisoners at Supermax?

Big photos below.​Disgraced ex-Illinois governor Rod "Blago" Blagojevich isn't the only infamous convict likely to be Colorado bound. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, dubbed the Underwear Bomber after a failed attempt to blow up a Detroit-bound airplane on Christmas 2009, has been sentenced to life ... More >>

Inmate rape resolution to be shared over objections of private prison giant

A former prisoner, now a shareholder in the country's largest for-profit prison operator, has won a battle with company management over his campaign to hold the Corrections Corporation of America accountable for reducing sexual abuse at its facilities. The Securities and Exchange Commission has rule ... More >>

Josiah Sher: Death for accused hit man, or just very expensive trial?

Josiah Sher.​News that Eighteenth Judicial District Attorney Carol Chambers is seeking the death penalty for Josiah Sher, the alleged trigger man in a double-murder-for-hire case in Castle Rock, doesn't exactly come as a shocker. The slayings of Amara Wells and Bob Rafferty were about as coldb ... More >>

Darren Garcia: How has HIV-positive prostitute allegedly been able to offend again and again?

Most of the attention for Wednesday's fourteen arrests in a Colfax prostitution sweep has focused on Darren Garcia, who presents herself as a woman and is HIV-positive. Garcia's eight previous busts include two for the crime of prostitution with the knowledge of AIDS, and she was convicted of a felo ... More >>

Private prisons' blueprint for success: more lobbying, less security

The use of private prisons by states and the federal government continues to increase, yielding billions in annual revenues for two dominant companies in the industry -- despite a lack of solid research that America's experiment with for-profit incarceration actually saves taxpayers money in the lon ... More >>

Jared Polis wants investigation into abuse of LGBT immigrants in detention

Colorado Congressman Jared Polis has called for a government investigation into alleged abuse suffered by gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender immigrants detained by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE). "Here we have people who are at their most vulnerable -- many without access to any lega ... More >>

Juvenile lifers targeted for rape, excessive isolation in adult prisons

​Juveniles doing time in adult prisons, surrounded by older and stronger criminals, rarely fare well. But juveniles serving sentences of life without parole in the United States face particularly daunting prospects of sexual assault, neglect and long periods of solitary confinement, according ... More >>

Robert Hood: A former supermax warden's resolutions for 2012

Robert Hood.​A former warden at the highest-security prison in the country -- the federal supermax prison outside Florence -- has some intriguing advice for fixing the nation's troubled, budget-draining corrections system in the coming year. Intriguing, in part, because some of the changes Rob ... More >>

Sister Helen Prejean on why Colorado's death penalty is past its expiration date

When you've spent close to three decades as one of America's leading opponents of capital punishment, you develop an understanding of what states truly have the will to execute their condemned. And Sister Helen Prejean, the Dead Man Walking author who's in Aurora tonight for a public talk on vengea ... More >>

The Big Bitch

The secret behind long sentences handed out to repeat offenders in the 18th Judicial District

Medical marijuana: 10 years for Cheeba Chews in Japan? Western states aren't much kinder

9News​Yesterday, 9News broke the story of Colorado School of Mines student Tim Wilson. The 25-year-old is facing up to ten years in prison in Japan because a friend back here in Colorado sent him a care package containing some pot cookies and Cheeba Chews.

Solitary confinement: Isolating prisoners overused in Colorado, study suggests

​A study by researchers at the National Institute of Corrections has found that Colorado's approach to locking down its most unruly prisoners in 23-hour-a-day isolation is "basically sound" -- but could be used a lot less. Instead, even as the state's prison population is declining slightly, t ... More >>

Darrell Havens: Lawsuit reinstated in police shooting that left him paralyzed

Darrell Havens.​A federal judge has ruled that Darrell Havens can proceed with his lawsuit against the Arvada police officer who shot him during a car-theft sting operation in 2007, leaving him a quadriplegic. The decision has Havens' attorneys poised to conduct a fresh investigation of the c ... More >>

How victim rights became a juggernaut shaping spending, laws and the future of punishment

Reader: Prison rape does occur in the Colorado system whether officials want to admit it or not

Alan Prendergast's post about prison rape, which one sheriff compared to UFOs and other cultural delusions, sparked a response from a reader identifying himself as a veteran correctional officer. He says such incidents are no fantasy.

Thomas Silverstein: Judge rules conditions at supermax not "extreme"

Federal judges in Denver are of two minds about the kind of punishment doled out at the supermax penitentiary in Florence. While one is allowing a Tanzanian terrorist's complaint about the prison's restrictions on his mail and visitors to proceed to trial, another has thrown out Thomas Silverstein's ... More >>

Prison rape: Sheriff compares it to UFO sightings, other "cultural delusions"

​Corrections officials are understandably defensive about a controversial Bureau of Justice Statistics survey that indicates a high incidence of prisoner sexual abuse in their facilities. But is that any reason for jail bosses to claim inmates are concocting fake stories of prison rape in orde ... More >>

Robert Walters asked Michael Leathers to kill his wife before hiring another man, police say

​ Robert Walters, the subject of this week's cover story, "Dead End," was persistent, prosecutors say. After one man declined Walters's request to kill his wife, he turned to Rodrick Williams, a career criminal who accepted the job but then ratted Walters out to the police. So who was the fi ... More >>

Prison rape: New resource center focuses on improving prosecution, prevention

​You won't find many prisons where the subject of rape behind bars is openly discussed, by inmates or staff -- not because it isn't a problem, but because it is. A Bureau of Justice Statistics report estimates that more than 200,000 adult prisoners endured sexual assaults in 2008, roughly one ... More >>