DENVER — Colorado is close to becoming the 22nd U.S. state to abolish the death penalty.
Lawmakers in the Democrat-majority House on Wednesday approved the repeal bill and sent it to Democratic Gov. Jared Polis, who has pledged to sign it into law. It’s the sixth death penalty repeal effort for the state since 2009.
The bill passed by the Democrat-dominated state Senate in January would apply to offenses charged starting July 1 and would not affect the fate of three men on Colorado’s death row who face execution by lethal injection.
But Polis has suggested he might consider clemency for them.
The vote came after lawmakers spent 11 hours the previous day engaging in somber and often emotional deliberations over morality, personal faith, deterrence, discrimination against defendants of color and wrongful convictions.
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