I don't think it makes Texas a better community. Texas has executed 173 inmates since 1976 and has 441 on death row. Gary Davis in 1997. Colorado may have a long way to go to rival Texas, but it's moving quickly. May. All but 2 of the pending cases involve murders that took place in 1997, soon after Colorado's new law became effective July 1, 1996.
Defense lawyers say the number of death-penalty cases is likely to remain high.
He and other defense lawyers contend that prosecutors wanted the law changed so they would have more success in obtaining the death penalty. Jurors were taking their obligation seriously and not putting everyone on death row that prosecutors thought should be there. Adams County District Attorney Bob Grant says consistency was the goal. He said the law was changed against a backdrop of cases in which prosecutors had failed to obtain the death penalty. In Denver, the vote of one juror spared Kevin Fears from execution in 1993.