DENVER, July 12 (UPI) -- Gov. Bill Owens Friday signed a bill into law that will bring Colorado law into line with a recent U.S. Supreme Court that requires juries rather than judges to impose death sentences.
Colorado may be the first of eight states impacted by the June 24 decision to rewrite its law that required three-judge panels to impose the sentences. The high court ruled in Ring v. Arizona that only juries could condemn a convicted criminal to death.
Owens announced July 3 in an agreement with state Attorney General Ken Salazar and the state's district attorneys that they would seek a new law requiring a unanimous jury decision to impose a death sentence.
"A unanimous jury sentencing procedure will ensure we have a defensible law for future death penalty cases," said Salazar.
Owens called a special legislative session this week to consider the death penalty issue and other concerns.
Legislators passed the bill Thursday, wrapping up a four-day special session. The lawmakers also passed bills increasing penalties for starting wildfires and aiding victims of the devastating drought in Colorado.
Some legislators sought to abolish the death penalty and others fought for less than unanimous sentencing but in the end they passed the original measure backed by Owens, Salazar and the district attorneys. The bill will take effect immediately.
It was unclear how the new law would affect three men on the state's death row awaiting execution who were put there by three-judge panels. A section of the new law will address legal questions related to two murder cases still in the trial stage.
Colorado law required unanimous jury sentencing in death penalty cases until 1995 when the Legislature adopted the three-judge panels. Ironically, it acted at that time after the Supreme Court in 1990 held that judges could impose the death penalty.
Eight of the 38 death penalty-states use judges in the sentencing process: Arizona, Florida, Idaho, Montana, Colorado, Nebraska, Alabama, and Delaware. Nebraska is the only other state that uses panels of judges. In the remaining states, the judge imposes the sentence or acts on a recommendation from a jury.
The Florida Supreme Court has stayed two executions to determine if the state's capital punishment law is constitutional. Florida permits a judge to override a non-unanimous jury recommendation of a life sentence and impose the death penalty.
