美国国家公共电台 NPR For Some Colorado Lawmakers, The Death Penalty Debate Is Personal（在线收听）

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

Around the U.S., lawmakers are debating whether or not to repeal the death penalty. Last week, California's governor issued a moratorium on executions there. And Colorado's new governor says the death penalty is outdated and expensive. But for some lawmakers in the state who will decide its fate, execution is about much more than policy. Bente Birkeland from Colorado Public Radio has more.

BENTE BIRKELAND, BYLINE: For some lawmakers, the death penalty is deeply personal, none more so than Democratic State Senator Rhonda Fields. Of the three men on Colorado's death row, two are there for the murder of her son and his fiancee. They were killed days before her son Javad was set to testify in a murder trial.

RHONDA FIELDS: It's just a part of my experience. It's a part of who I am as a lawmaker. I mean, it's a constant pain that I live with every day.

BIRKELAND: Democrats who hold the majority in the legislature are the ones pushing the death penalty repeal. That means Fields, who supports the death penalty, is going against most of her party. The bill is written to only apply to future cases. Yet Fields believes if it passes, her son's killers will never be executed.

FIELDS: What kind of justice is that for Javad and Vivian, who were doing their civic responsibility by cooperating with the police? Their whole future was ahead of them. And they were ambushed and murdered.

BIRKELAND: Governor Jared Polis says if the bill reaches his desk, he would strongly consider sparing the lives of the men on death row. Yet one of Colorado's most high-profile murderers wasn't sentenced to death. James Holmes was found guilty of killing 12 people in the Aurora theater shooting.

TOM SULLIVAN: It's not a theory. It's not a big-picture thing. We actually lived it.

BIRKELAND: That's Democratic Representative Tom Sullivan, whose son Alex was one of those killed. He supported prosecutors' push for the death penalty and doesn't want to tell any other family they can't seek what they feel is justice.

SULLIVAN: Even after the fact, there was no remorse from what he had done. There's every indication if he were to have another chance at this, he would try to do it again.

BIRKELAND: Colorado has come close to repealing the death penalty before. But advocates and the bill's sponsor, Angela Williams, say this is the best chance they've had. Williams says she is keeping her colleagues' experiences in mind.

ANGELA WILLIAMS: And I'm approaching this with all due respect.

BIRKELAND: The Democratic senator feels the death penalty is too costly, immoral and not applied fairly. As a black woman, Williams says she worries for her son and other people of color.

WILLIAMS: The three men who are African-American that sit on death row now, they are all from Arapahoe County. They all went to the same high school. Where you live and the color of your skin and how much money you have depends whether or not you get the death penalty or not.

BIRKELAND: Other lawmakers are still grappling with what to do. Democratic Representative Dominique Jackson covered crime extensively when she was a television reporter.

DOMINIQUE JACKSON: I have spent time with the families on both sides. And I've witnessed an individual dying by lethal injection.

BIRKELAND: It was 1999 in California. Jackson says she was there to take down the facts and doesn't remember finding the experience traumatic. But all these years later, it sticks with her.

JACKSON: I remember the smells, the footsteps walking down the hallways in San Quentin, the eerie, green glow of the lights. And I remember that man's chest rising and falling.

BIRKELAND: Jackson says as she tries to make up her mind on the death penalty measure, she'll be listening to all sides, including how this issue has also impacted the lives of her colleagues. For NPR News, I'm Bente Birkeland.

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