DENVER, March 20 (UPI) -- Attorneys for a Colorado man convicted of murdering four people said Tuesday his death sentence should be overturned because he is mentally ill.
Nathan Dunlap's new lawyers told a three-judge panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver their client's trial lawyers did not adequately consider his medical history, review state mental hospital reports or tell jurors about his mental illness, KCNC-TV, Denver, reported. The judges did not make a decision on Dunlap's death sentence Tuesday.
"Nathan Dunlap is running out of time. This is his last, best chance," said attorney David Lane, who has defended inmates on death row but is not directly involved with Dunlap's case.
"If he loses here, his odds of being executed skyrocket," Lane told The Denver Post.
Dunlap killed four people and injured a fifth at an Aurora Chuck E. Cheese Dec. 14, 1993, when he was 19 years old. No execution date has been set for Dunlap, the Post said.
