Governor Grants ACLU Request
to Disclose Execution Date

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 19, 1997

In response to a formal request by the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado (ACLU) Governor Roy Romer agreed this afternoon to provide advance public disclosure of the date for the execution of convicted murderer Gary Davis, the first execution in Colorado in thirty years.

Although the execution date has not yet been set, the Governor’s office agreed to make a public announcement once the date is selected.

The execution warrant specifies that the execution will take place sometime in the week beginning October 11. According to a Colorado statute originally enacted in 1889, the Director of the Department of Corrections selects the particular time and date of the execution. The statute forbids the Director from making the date public, but, according to a letter the ACLU sent to Governor Romer on Tuesday, the statute does not restrict the Governor from disclosing the date.

"I applaud the Governor’s decision to release the execution date," said Mark Silverstein, ACLU Legal Director, who wrote the letter to the Governor on behalf of Amnesty International Group 60 and the Colorado Coalition Against the Death Penalty. The anti-death penalty groups plan to conduct a protest and vigil outside the prison gates and want to schedule the event to coincide with the time of the execution.

"Courts have ruled that representatives of the public, including representatives from the media, have a First Amendment right to observe executions," Silverstein said. "Individuals have a corresponding right to know the time and date of an execution so that they can gather outside the prison gates and peacefully protest the use of capital punishment."

Almost every state that imposes capital punishment announces the date and time of an execution in advance, according to Silverstein. The original reasons for enacting Colorado’s unusual statute, Silverstein said, are no longer valid today. According to an 1889 Colorado Supreme Court decision, the statute was enacted originally because the crowds that assembled at public hangings were believed to detract from "good public morals."

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