Dear Members of the Colorado General Assembly and Governor:

We, the undersigned clergy and religious leaders in Colorado, call for the repeal of the death penalty in Colorado.

As religious leaders from the spectrum of faith traditions in Colorado, we approach public policies such as the death penalty in as varied ways as we approach spiritual matters. However, we share the values of respecting the sacredness of all human life and in the human capacity for change. The authority to kill prisoners is the greatest power citizens give to their governments short of sending citizens to fight in war. As such, the death penalty raises questions of the soul as well as ones of public policy. The answers to these questions must be discerned in our sanctuaries and acted upon by people of faith and good will or they will be left unanswered in our legislative chambers and courtrooms.

We agree with many people in Colorado that our state’s death penalty is a moral and practical failure.

As pastoral leaders, we at times provide support to victims’ families in the aftermath of murder. Given this responsibility, we have a special interest in advocating for policies that serve their needs and promote healing and well-being. There is ample evidence that the death penalty does the opposite: it prolongs victims’ pain and delays healing while appeals and reversals force families to relive their trauma.

Nearly 150 people have been exonerated and freed from death row in the United States because they were innocent. Racial and class bias leave disproportionate numbers of minorities and poor people on death row. Currently, all three men on Colorado’s death row are African-American. States without the death penalty have lower homicide rates than states with the death penalty, according to government studies. In Colorado, it costs 20 times as much to prosecute a capital murder case as it costs to prosecute a first-degree murder case where the death penalty is not sought. States without the death penalty have millions more dollars available every year for crime prevention and to offer real help to murder victims’ family members. But even if these problems with the death penalty in practice did not exist we would still oppose the death penalty on moral and theological grounds.

We call upon all legislators and the governor to repeal Colorado’s death penalty and redirect the funds that would be saved to provide programs of support for the families of murder victims, for investigations of unsolved murders, and for programs to prevent violent crime in our communities.

We support efforts from within our faith traditions to examine and challenge the death penalty and to materially support those organizations working for its repeal.

Sincerely,