Colo. governor delays convicted killer’s execution

May 22, 2013 at 5:18p.m.

DENVER (AP) — Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper indefinitely delayed the execution of convicted killer Nathan Dunlap on today and said he was unlikely to allow it as long as he is governor.

Hickenlooper 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.

Dunlap, 38, was convicted and sentenced to die in 1996 for the ambush slayings of four people 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, got only a reprieve, not the clemency he sought. Clemency would have removed the possibility of execution and changed his sentence to life without parole.

Dunlap could conceivably be executed one day if another governor lifts the reprieve.

Hickenlooper “took a coward’s way out,” said Melinda Cromar, sister of one of the victims, 19-year-old Sylvia Crowell. “I am just so angry.”

District Attorney George Brauchler called Hickenlooper’s decision an injustice.

“This is not action, this is inaction. This is shrugging,” said Brauchler, the chief prosecutor in the district where Dunlap was convicted.