The long awaited Aurora theater shooting trial began this week.  This is a death penalty trial and is expected to last four to five months.  I was able to attend the opening statements, which can only be described as heart wrenching.  They were a preview for what is to come over these months and I believe represent a strong argument against the death penalty.
As the prosecution started the day with their opening statement, they described in detail the events that took place in the movie theater on July 20, 2012.  They played audio of 911 calls, shared the names of many of the victims and showed graphic images of injuries to the jury.  Many people in the courtroom were moved to tears, especially the victims as they were finally, after nearly three years, forced to relive this night.
The defense’s opening statement painted a different tragedy, that of severe mental illness.  It was distressing to think of an individual succumbing to schizophrenia and what that disease does to the mind.
Opening statements also brought out facts and information that were unknown to the public until now.  Details of the tragedy and events leading up to it as well as information about the defendant’s actions directly after the shooting took place.  These details truly bring the horror of the theater shooting back to life and while it fills in the blanks for a lot of the public and victims involved, it also forces people to relive the whole tragedy over again.
If the defendant is eventually found guilty, the trial will then move into the sentencing phase.  After this, if he is sentenced to death, many people think that will finally mean closure for the victims and community.  In reality, it is the opposite.
As with all death penalty cases, the defendant is entitled to appeals, these are in place because the punishment cannot be reversed once it is carried out.  These appeals mean that victims, family members and the community will be forced to relive the details of this crime over again.  The emotional turmoil of hearing about the case and the defendant’s name will continue for years to come.  After just a few days of listening to testimony about that night, I can’t imagine having to go through this for the duration of the trial, let alone know that that is not the end.
This is a fundamental problem with the death penalty.  Ultimately it does not provide closure and does not allow victims to heal.  More and more victims and their family members are coming out against the death penalty for this very reason.
Last year in Colorado, Bob Autobee pleaded with the District Attorney not to seek death for his son’s killer, and ended up protesting outside of jury selection for the trial.  Eventually he was joined by several other family members of murder victims who also don’t believe in the death penalty.
More recently in Boston, as the trial for the Boston bomber entered the sentencing phase, several victims and family members publicly stated their opposition to the death penalty, arguing that they were ready for it all to be over.  Ultimately the death penalty would not provide them closure.
The false promise that vengeance is justice just perpetuates the broken death penalty system.  In reality, murdering the murderer will not bring anyone back and the prolonged capital punishment process just elongates the nightmare for victims, family members and the community.

4/17/2015
DENVER – The American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado issued the following statement today on SB 268, the “Personhood” bill introduced in the Colorado State Senate on April 14:
“The ACLU of Colorado strongly opposes Senate Bill 268, the latest in a long line of attempts to change Colorado’s laws to establish legal personhood at conception.
“Colorado voters and legislators have repeatedly recognized the dangerous consequences of defining a fertilized egg as a person and have summarily rejected all previous “personhood” initiatives, even those cloaked in deceptive language and intentions.
“We extend our deepest sympathies to Michelle Wilkins and her family.  What she experienced was tragic and horrifying.  But her personal tragedy should not be used to push an unnecessary statute or an extreme political agenda.
“Colorado’s Crimes Against Pregnant Women Act was carefully crafted and enacted by the legislature for exactly this type of case.  It provides for severe criminal penalties against offenders who wrongfully harm a woman and cause her to lose a pregnancy, and it does so without interfering with reproductive rights. In this case, the alleged perpetrator has been charged with multiple felonies and faces a sentence of more than 100 years in prison.
“SB 268 contains language that is ambiguous and unclear.  If it were passed, it would ultimately be up to the courts to decide the true scope of the law and its effects on reproductive health and the rights of women.  The one thing that is clear is that this bill aims to permanently alter our laws to grant legal personhood at conception, a perilous legal precedent that would open a Pandora’s box of dangerous consequences, both intended and unintended, for Colorado women and their families.”

April 15, 2015
DENVER – Today, the State, Veterans, and Military Affairs Committee of the Colorado House of Representatives will hear testimony on House Bill 1264, a bill to ensure that all people, regardless of their economic circumstances or social status, have the right to rest and move about in public places without fear of being ticketed, harassed, or arrested.
The following is the prepared testimony of ACLU of Colorado Executive Nathan Woodliff-Stanley on HB 1264:

It has become clear to the ACLU that the Right to Rest Act is both timely and desperately needed.
There has been a rapid acceleration in the past few years of municipalities across Colorado criminalizing homelessness, making it illegal to do everything necessary for survival when homeless, including the harmless act of sleeping or resting, by banning it pretty much anywhere.
Having no home is not a crime, but it is difficult to find people in that circumstance who have not experienced ticketing, arrest, jail time, unaffordable fines or harsh encounters with law enforcement, mostly just for existing in the wrong place and time, violating curfew or loitering laws, ordinances against camping or even sitting, lying down, or sleeping in your own legally parked car.
Without a state law protecting peaceful rest and survival for those without a home, we will continue to see a race to the bottom as municipalities compete to be the most hostile to people experiencing homelessness, hoping to drive them somewhere else, anywhere else.
I could share countless stories and examples, such as our client David Madison who was turned away from homeless shelters with no more room on a cold night in Boulder, arrested under a camping ban for using a sleeping bag.  He could have legally slept in only his clothes at 11 degrees, but the sleeping bag counted as illegal shelter, so he was treated as a criminal.
In Fort Collins, the ACLU found that police were arresting people under aggressive panhandling laws for silently holding signs, going far beyond the law itself, as well as Constitutional boundaries.  In Wheat Ridge, laws against loitering on school grounds are being used to arrest people for sitting on park benches nowhere near a school.  In Larimer County there has been a spike in arrests around homelessness, and these arrests are costly.  In a four-year period ending August of 2014, taxpayers had to pay for Larimer County jails to hold people who were homeless or transient for 96,475 inmate days.
It is hard enough to be homeless without facing a constant threat of arrest, often literally for doing nothing, being pushed out of public spaces that are supposed to be public, having your civil liberties violated and being unable to meet your most basic human needs, including simple rest.  I have to ask, if you truly have no home, just where exactly are you supposed to go?
Read the Colorado Right to Rest Act: http://coloradohomelessbillofrights.org/colorado-right-to-rest-act/

Visit the ACLU of Colorado Criminalization of Homelessness campaign page: https://aclu-co.org/campaigns/criminalization-homelessness/