In 2020, the state of Colorado repealed the death penalty and Gov. Jared Polis commuted the sentences of the state’s three death row prisoners to life without the possibility of parole.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit organization based out of Washington, D.C., the first execution in the state was of John Stoefel in 1859.
According to a 1946 article from The Steamboat Pilot, “summary justice had been meted out to Denver’s first murderer, and the then town of Auraria had witnessed its first legal hanging.” Stoefel killed his brother-in-law Thomas Biencroff a few days earlier and confessed to the crime, according to information published by The Steamboat Pilot.
DPIC explained executions in Colorado were carried out by hanging until 1934 when the state adopted lethal gas for executions, and in 1988 the state switched to lethal injection. DPIC’s data, going back to 1977, showed only one execution has happened in the state since that time frame.
In a press release from March 23, 2020, at the same time the death penalty was repealed, Polis released a statement: “Commutations are typically granted to reflect evidence of extraordinary change in the offender. That is not why I am commuting these sentences to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Rather, the commutations of these despicable and guilty individuals are consistent with the abolition of the death penalty in the State of Colorado, and consistent with the recognition that the death penalty cannot be, and never has been, administered equitably in the State of Colorado.”
Polis continued on saying: “While I understand that some victims agree with my decision and others disagree, I hope this decision provides clarity and certainty for them moving forward. The decision to commute these sentences was made to reflect what is now Colorado law, and done after a thorough outreach process to the victims and their families.”
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, there are 27 states that have the death penalty while three of them have a governor-imposed moratorium.