What Happened At The Capitol

Today was a great day at the capitol!!!! Here’s a quick update and an action alert from our allies at Coloradoans Against the Death Penalty!

1 . Forfeiture bill (formerly known as HB 1238): On 3/23/09 Rep. Rice asked members of the House Judiciary Committee to kill his forfeiture bill because he wanted to introduce a “new” forfeiture bill. CCJRC was provided with a draft copy of the new bill this week and CCJRC and the ACLU met with Rep Rice yesterday to discuss our ongoing objections. Today, Rep Rice announced that he would NOT be introducing a new bill this session and wanted to bring parties together after the session to see if agreements could be reached. This is a major victory and we cannot thank all of you enough for all your emails and calls to legislators. We especially want to thank the coalition of groups that came together to oppose the bill.

2. HB 1266, which would limit the loss of driving privileges to only those crimes that are driving related, PASSED out of the House Appropriations Committee today. CCJRC strongly supports this bill and it was forward by the Commission on Criminal & Juvenile Justice. We are very hopeful that this bill, like the other Commission bills, will continue to receive strong support. We will keep you posted.

3. HB 1274, which would abolish the death penalty and put cost savings into a cold case unit, PASSED out of the House Appropriations Committee today and will be heard on the House floor early next week. THIS BILL NEEDS AS MUCH SUPPORT AS WE CAN GENERATE. Below is an action alert from Coloradoans Against the Death Penalty.

Stay tuned! There are still a number of very important bills still going through the process and you’ll learn more about a couple of new bills being introduced next week that we are very excited about.

Pam, Carol and Christie

CCJRC

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Colorado Citizens - Take Action Now! PLEASE CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVE.!!

HB 09-1274 was heard by the Colorado House of Representatives Appropriations Committee today and it passed 8 to 4. We are now one step further. HB 09-1274 will go to a vote of the full Colorado House of Representatives next week, which means we have very little time to get the word out! PLEASE FORWARD THIS EMAIL TO EVERYBODY YOU KNOW.

To recap HB 09-1274, there have been more than 1,400 unsolved murders in Colorado since 1970. Families of Homicide Victims and Missing Persons (

http://www.unresolvedhomicides.org/index.cfm

) has called for greater funding for the "Cold Case Team" at the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. The CBI Cold Case Team was legislatively mandated in 2007, but only has the funds for a single analyst. More funding is vital to solve these crimes and catch the killers, but the rules of the Colorado legislature require that any new expenditure includes a funding source.

Families of Homicide Victims and Missing Persons (FOHVAMP) asks that Colorado's failed death penalty system be shut down and that the money saved be put toward something that will actually help victim's family members and protect our communities. House Bill 09-1274 does exactly that.

The Coloradoans Against the Death Penalty are asking that you PLEASE SUPPORT HB 09-1274 by contacting your Colorado Representative TODAY by email, by telephone, or with a note with a simple statement to convey the message such as:

"I support HB 09-1274, the bill to provide funding for the Cold Case Unit by repealing the death penalty. Family members of murder victims deserve to know the truth about what happened to their loved one."

Be sure to include your full name and address so that your Representative knows that you are a constituent who lives in his or her district. Once you contacted your representative THE NEXT STEP is to ask others to do the same.

If you don’t already know who your state Representative is, enter your zip+4 zip code at

http://www.vote-smart.org/resource_govt101_02.php

to learn that information. Click on "complete contact information" to receive the postal address. Or e-mail your full address to lisa@coadp.org and she will look it up for you.

THANK YOU for taking this action today. If you would like to receive latest updates and further action alerts, please sign up here

http://www.coadp.org

Coloradans Against the Death Penalty

Coloradans Against the Death Penalty is not affiliated with Families of Homicide Victims and Missing Persons, but is promoting this effort to assist the success of that organization and its goals.