PERRY: ‘Til death penalty do us part — Colorado juries must be unanimous for good reasons

I can give you about 5 million reasons to begin with why the GOP-led effort to require that only nine of 12 jurors are needed to impose the death penalty is a really bad idea.

Although the state doesn’t want to definitively say just how much they spent in trying to convict and defend Aurora theater shooting convict James Holmes, it’s at least about $5 million, according to numerous media attempts to find it out.

Constitutional framers saw great wisdom in setting the bar high for the deep-pocketed government to prove its case for a conviction. There are virtually no limits to what government prosecutors can spend to convict and execute you. In addition, the political stakes for district attorneys are high, pressing them to get the conviction they promise.

So along the way, the federal government, and even the U.S. Supreme Court in 1972, underscored the need and good judgment of a unanimous jury, holding federal juries to the standard. The mandate prompts longer, better deliberations and underscores the gravity of the government killing people.

This political stunt by a handful of Colorado Republican state senators, led by state Sen. Kevin Lundberg, is a sad response to the life sentence handed to Holmes after the months-long Aurora theater shooting trial. At least one juror refused to impose the death penalty after conviction, and one report said there were actually a few jurors who balked at the death penalty in the case.

Such a jury change would put Colorado in the dubious company of states like Alabama, Florida and Delaware, where police and justice problems regularly surface.

Given that numerous studies have shown that the death penalty is disproportionately imposed on minorities across Colorado and the country, and that counties like Arapahoe County disproportionately seek the death penalty, the measure is especially dangerous to Colorado residents who are poor and black or Latino and who are accused of crimes in Aurora.

The long and complicated process of selecting a jury in Colorado works well in creating panels that are unbiased and unfettered in seeking the truth behind the propaganda dished out by both sides. The criminal justice system, by its very nature, is designed to benefit the defendants. Carrying the misguided logic of SB 64 further would be to instruct jurors that they no longer have to believe a verdict beyond the shadow of a doubt, but just be kinda comfortable that the defendant is guilty and deserves to die.

Like a growing number of Coloradans, I have long insisted that the state end its untenable, expensive and barbaric death penalty.  Each year, it comes closer to doing that, joining a growing number of states that see how it’s either very wrong, or never very right. This is nothing but a distraction to where Colorado is ultimately going and just needs to get there faster.

Follow @EditorDavePerry on Twitter and Facebook or reach him at 303-750-7555 or dperrry@aurorasentinel.com.