Two DU law professors discussed the death penalty and a proposed piece of legislation that would repeal it in Colorado in a talk hosted by the on April 14 in the Sturm College of Law.

The event was hosted by the DU chapter of the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies.

Professors Robert M. Hardaway and Sam Kamin each offered his perspectives on the death penalty and the bill (House Bill 1274) which was passed with amendments in second reading on April 15 in the House. The legislation, if passed and signed by the governor, would ban the death penalty in Colorado and reallocate the money saved to the investigation of cold cases.

During the talk Kamin advocated the bill and discussed its merits and benefits for the state.

He also raised the issue of the death penalty acting as a deterrent to the commission of heinous crimes.

Hardaway, on the other hand, laid out the points covered in his article “Beyond a Conceivable Doubt: The Quest for a Fair and Constitutional Standard of Proof in Death Penalty Cases,” which appeared in the New England Journal on Criminal and Civil Confinement in 2008.

In both the article and his talk Hardaway advocated a reform to U.S. policy with regard to the death penalty which would require the jury to believe that the defendant was guilty beyond a conceivable doubt rather than just a reasonable doubt in death penalty cases.

“I would like to focus on reforming the death penalty and allow innocence to be a case for appeal [Right now] you can’t argue that the person’s innocent when asking for an appeal and I think that that should be changed from a legal standpoint. I rejected the notion that we should get rid of the death penalty because it costs too much. I don’t think matters of justice should be determined on the basis of cost,” Hardaway said.

Hardaway said that the talk was not a debate or a discussion of the morality of the death penalty, but rather a discussion of the legal issues around it.

“It’s really a fruitless debate. Either you think it’s a fair and just punishment or you don’t,” said Hardaway, explaining why the talk did not aim to deconstruct whether the death penalty as a policy is right or wrong.

Capital punishment is a rare phenomenon in Colorado. There have only been one or two executions of capitol offenders in Colorado in the last 50 years, according to Hardaway.

Fifteen U.S. states have abolished the death penalty.