{"id":3674,"date":"2009-04-24T04:10:00","date_gmt":"2009-04-24T04:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/?p=3674"},"modified":"2025-09-26T01:17:18","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T01:17:18","slug":"archbishop-chaput-of-denver-instrumental-in-eliminating-the-death-penalty-in-colorado","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/?p=3674","title":{"rendered":"Archbishop Chaput of Denver instrumental in repeal of the death penalty in Colorado"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I am a big admirer of Archbishop Chaput. Here’s a review of his last book – Tom Faranda’s Folly: Latest Read: Render Unto Caesar<\/font><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

and here’s the death penalty story:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

The Catholic Key Blog: Archbishop Chaput Credited for Death Penalty Vote<\/strong><\/font><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Colorado House yesterday voted 33-32 to repeal the state’s death penalty. The measure now goes to the Senate. An interesting bit of drama occurred on the floor during the vote and only the Durango Herald<\/font><\/a> has picked up on it, my emphases:<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n

Debate lasted only a few minutes Tuesday, apparently because most of the 65 representatives had made up their minds. All except Ed Vigil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The freshman Democrat from Fort Garland sat still as the House’s electronic board tallied the vote – a 32-32 tie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vigil, a former district attorney’s investigator, thinks the death penalty is a useful tool.<\/span> In a 2007 case, Jose Luis Rubi-Nava confessed to killing his girlfriend in Douglas County by dragging her behind his car. The threat of the death penalty secured Rubi-Nava’s plea, Vigil said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“As soon as the death penalty became part of the equation, he pled guilty and got a life sentence,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Vigil also was thinking about moral appeals he had heard, including from Archbishop Charles Chaput, the senior Roman Catholic clergyman in Colorado.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vigil bit his lip and ran a hand back through his hair. Other House members stood up and looked his way as a silent minute dragged by. At last, he reached across the desk and pushed the green button for “yes.”<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The death penalty repeal passed 33-32.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am a big admirer of Archbishop Chaput. Here’s a review of his last book – Tom Faranda’s Folly: Latest Read: Render Unto Caesar and here’s the death penalty story:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3674"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3674\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10083,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3674\/revisions\/10083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}