Tag:death penalty

Colorado lawmakers approved legislation that will send a question to voters asking if people charged with first-degree murder should be denied bail “when proof is evident or presumption is great” that the person will be found guilty. 

Colorado repealed the death penalty in 2020, but across the nation there are 27 states that have it in place.

The first death penalty case in Colorado happened in 1859.

Benjamin Ratcliff was hanged in February 1896 for murdering three school board members in “the most brutal and unprovoked murder ever known in Park County,” according to the New Castle News.

Convicted murderer, Robert Harlan, was originally sentenced to death but the state Supreme Court overturned the sentence after reports of juror misconduct.

The 1999 Columbine High School shooting shocked the nation but before that heinous crime was another that ended in four deaths in 1993.