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DENVER – Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper indefinitely delayed the execution of convicted killer Nathan Dunlap on Wednesday and said he was unlikely to allow it as long as he is governor.
Hickenlooper stopped short of converting the death sentence to life in prison, as Dunlap’s lawyers had requested.
Hickenlooper, a Democrat, said he had doubts about the fairness of Colorado’s death-penalty system and about the state’s ability to get the lethal drugs required for an execution.
Republicans derided his decision as no decision at all, with Attorney General John Suthers saying the reprieve guaranteed “continued suffering and delayed justice” for families of Dunlap’s victims.
“He took a coward’s way out,” said Melinda Cromar, whose 19-year-old sister Sylvia Crowell was among those killed by Dunlap. “I am just so angry.”
Dunlap, 38, was convicted in 1996 and sentenced to die for the ambush slayings of Crowell and three others in a Denver-area restaurant. Hickenlooper’s action essentially guarantees Dunlap will survive through Jan. 13, 2015, the last day of Hickenlooper’s first term. Hickenlooper plans to run for re-election, and the reprieve is sure to be a campaign issue.
Dunlap, whose execution was scheduled for the week of Aug. 18, had requested clemency, which would have removed the possibility of execution and changed his sentence to life without parole.
Dunlap could conceivably be executed one day if a Colorado governor lifts the reprieve.
Hickenlooper’s announcement frustrated and angered the current top prosecutor in the district where Dunlap was convicted.
“He could have made a decision I disagreed with. He could have made a decision I agreed with. But to not make a decision is an injustice,” District Attorney George Brauchler said.
“One person will go to bed with a smile on his face, and that’s Nathan Dunlap, and that’s due to one person,” Brauchler said.
Madeline Cohen, one of Dunlap’s attorneys, expressed relief.
“I’m very, very glad that the governor has decided not to go forward and has recognized how many problems there are in the system,” she said.
Hickenlooper said he considered the decision carefully.
“We heard a variety of sides and obviously this has weighed heavily on me for well over a year now,” he said at a news conference.
Dunlap has acknowledged fatally shooting four employees – three of them teenagers – who were cleaning a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant after hours in the Denver suburb of Aurora.
