"Appeals court rejects Nathan Dunlap's secrecy challenge," is the Denver Post report by Karen Augé.
An appeals court has denied condemned killer Nathan Dunlap's effort to force the state Department of Corrections to throw out its procedures for carrying out an execution and create the plans from scratch, this time with public input.
The Colorado Court of Appeals decision, released Thursday, affirms a lower court's ruling.
Dunlap's legal team had argued that a DOC document spelling out exact details of how an inmate would be executed should be tossed out because it was compiled without public input and wasn't available for public scrutiny.
Writing for the court majority, Judge Jerry Jones said the legislature gave the DOC's executive director broad powers to manage inmates, and that includes carrying out death sentences.
Dunlap's legal team said they will appeal.
"We believe that the court is wrong to find that lethal injection procedures in Colorado are exempt from the Administrative Procedures Act," attorney Jessica Yates said in a statement.
"Court rejects execution procedure challenge," is the AP report, via KUSA-TV.
Condemned killer Nathan Dunlap has lost his bid to challenge the procedure that Colorado will use to execute him.The Colorado Court of Appeals Thursday rejected Dunlap attorneys' argument the state developed the lethal injection execution procedure without public input. The court sided with the state that argued the lethal injection execution procedure falls under the duties of the prisons director and don't require public input.
The ruling in Dunlap v. Colorado Department of Corrections is available in Adobe .pdf format.
Dunlaps attorneys, James D. Kilroy and Jessica E. Yates of Snell & Wilmer have issued, "Statement from Attorneys for Plaintiff Nathan Dunlap in Response to Today’s Ruling from the Court of Appeals on the Administrative Procedures Act." Here's the full text:
“We believe that the court is wrong to find that lethal injection procedures in Colorado are exempt from the Administrative Procedures Act. We intend to appeal this decision to the Colorado Supreme Court. No execution should be allowed to take place in Colorado until – at a minimum – that court has had a full and fair opportunity to review this issue.
As Judge Richman wrote in his dissent from the court’s ruling today: ‘One of the purposes of the APA is to ensure that state agencies do not restrict the freedom of any persons contrary to the public interest . . . and to permit public input and comment on proposed rules being considered by the agencies of our state government. . .The method of carrying out a death sentence by lethal injection is a matter of public interest and a matter on which the public should have the opportunity for input.’
Lethal injection rules and procedures in Colorado are shrouded in secrecy. The use of lethal injection represents the most extreme act a government can take against a citizen. Surely, in this case, the public, the courts and the press must have access to complete information in order have input into such a major policy decision, and to ensure that the state's actions fully comport with the law. As Judge Richman observed in his dissent, ‘[t]he fact that the procedures [for lethal injection executions] are not disclosed in the regulation – nor were they disclosed to the courts that have decided this case, or even the assistant attorney general who represents the DOC – makes it particularly troublesome for us to make an informed decision.’
The public, too, cannot make an informed decision about this important issue under these circumstances.”
Earlier this week, KDVR-TV reported, "Hickenlooper ‘gathering information’ as Dunlap execution ticks closer," by Eli Stokols. There is video at the link.
Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper told FOX31 Denver Monday that the looming execution of Nathan Dunlap, the Chuck E. Cheese killer, is the hardest decision he’s faced yet as governor.A district judge is set to schedule an execution date for Dunlap, who murdered four people inside an Aurora Chuck E. Cheese 20 years ago, on May 1; and that execution date would likely be some time in August.
Phil Cherner, who represents Dunlap, told FOX31 Denver Monday that he hasn’t contacted the governor’s office yet, but that he will be asking Hickenlooper to commute his client’s death sentence if and when an execution date is set.
Hickenlooper has known this moment was approaching; and he’s been grappling with the issue for the last nine months.
And:
A month ago, Hickenlooper told House Democrats he was likely to veto legislation that would have repealed Colorado’s death penalty; the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Claire Levy, was steamed because she introduced the bill believing that Hickenlooper would sign it if it got to his desk.
“I thought we’d been pretty clear that we had real concerns with the bill,” Hickenlooper said. “I don’t think the people throughout the state, at this moment at least, are there yet.”
But unlike most policy decisions, capital punishment doesn’t break down party lines — it’s a political question that is, for many, deeply personal. And there’s no poll showing a broad majority on either side of the issue, as there’s been in support of universal background checks and civil unions, policies the cautious governor has backed this year.
That makes the death penalty an awkward issue for Hickenlooper, a personable but shrewdly political executive who values consensus above all.
Earlier coverage of Nathan Dunlap's case begins at the link; also available, coverage of the Colorado repeal legislation.
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