22ND STATE

Colorado Abolishes the Death Penalty

Gov. Jared Polis also commuted the sentences of the only three men on the state’s death row.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed into law a bill abolishing the death penalty and commuted the sentences of three death-row inmates—two of whom were convicted of murdering the son of a state legislator who opposed the measure. Colorado is now the 22nd state to get rid of capital punishment since it was declared constitutional, and the move comes amid dwindling support for executions. State Sen. Rhonda Fields, a Democrat, opposed abolition because her son, Javad Marshall-Fields, and his fiancée were killed in 2005 while waiting to testify in a shooting case, according to The Denver Post. Their killers, along with a man who murdered four people at a Chuck E. Cheese, had their sentences commuted to life.