Colorado | DA laments inability to pursue death penalty for Club Q shooter

In a post-trial press conference on Monday, 4th Judicial District Attorney Michael Allen joined several city leaders and public safety officials in praising the heroism shown during the Club Q shooting, as well as the law enforcement and prosecutorial efforts that led to Anderson Aldrich pleading guilty to more than 51 charges and being sentenced to more than 2,000 years in prison, with no possibility of parole or appeal.

But with an emotional and arduous trial behind him, and with Aldrich unlikely to ever leave prison alive, Allen also had some strong words for the Club Q assailant as well as Colorado laws that prevented his office from pursuing the death penalty.

“Today marks an important step in the recovery journey of the victims and family members of the Club Q shooting,” Allen said.

“Five consecutive life sentences – one life sentence for each murder victim …plus 48 years for each person the defendant in this case attempted to murder that night, running consecutively, totaling 2,208 years on top of those five consecutive life sentences. That is the longest sentence ever achieved in the 4th Judicial District.”

Allen highlighted the bravery of Thomas James, Richard Fierro, and Drea Norman in subduing Aldrich and helping to prevent a catastrophic situation from becoming much worse.

“The combined heroics of these three individuals undoubtedly saved, as I said, countless lives,” Allen said.

The District Attorney then expressed frustration at his office’s inability to pursue a death sentence for Aldrich. Capital punishment was abolished in Colorado in 2020.

“Cases like this are why the death penalty should exist in the state of Colorado,” Allen said. “The victims in this case deserve the ultimate punishment that the law can provide, and they were robbed of that by changes in the law just a few short years ago.”

Colorado Springs Police Chief Adrian Vasquez said Monday’s sentencing was a necessary step toward healing for the Club Q victims and survivors, their families, and the LGBT community.

“Words can’t help those who were injured heal faster. They can’t remove the trauma suffered by so many in the club and in the LGBT community,” Vasquez said. “What I hope today does is remind everyone that you are not alone. Every member of the police department stands by you today, tomorrow, and in the future.”

Vasquez added that the U.S. Attorney’s Office has requested that the police department not release any documents, evidence or video until the federal judicial process has concluded.

Mark Michalek, special agent in charge of the FBI field office in Denver, confirmed that his agency has opened an investigation into the Club Q attack, but declined to specify possible charges or penalties being sought.

Colorado Springs Mayor Yemi Mobolade thanked the DA’s office, CSPD, the FBI, and first responders for their combined efforts, beginning the night of the attack and leading up to Monday’s disposition of the case.

“Justice may have been served in the legal sense,” Mobolade said. “However, the fight for justice and healing must continue.”

Former Mayor John Suthers, who was in office at the time of the attack, commended the Colorado Springs community for responding to the Club Q attack with dignity and compassion.

“Our community is defined by our response to this incident and not by the acts of an evildoer,” Suthers said. “And I am confident, at this point in time, that history will judge it just so.”

“This was done right, and I, based on my experience, can assure our community and the victims of this crime that the disposition reached today, in light of the state of the law in Colorado – without a death penalty – this is the best possible disposition that could have taken place. Justice was achieved to the maximum degree allowed under the laws of the state of Colorado.”

Asked for his assessment of the case, Allen did not mince words when speaking about the Club Q shooter.

“He’s a coward,” Allen said. “Any time you go into any establishment … knowing that the people inside cannot effectively counter the firepower that you’re bringing in … that is the epitome of being a coward.”

Allen notably eschewed the use of they/them pronouns when referring to Aldrich, who has claimed to be nonbinary.

“There was zero evidence, prior to the shooting, that he was nonbinary,” he said. “He exhibited extreme hatred for people in the LGBT community – and for other minority groups as well.”

Mobolade stressed that the city will do what it can to help the LGBT community to continue to heal moving forward.

“In the darkest of times, we choose to find the light as best we can,” the mayor said. “In the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., ‘Only when it’s dark enough can you see the stars.’”

Source: gazette.com, Staff, June 26, 2023

_____________________________________________________________________

FOLLOW US ON:

CONTACT: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde

Florida executes Michael Tanzi

Florida on Tuesday executed a death row inmate described by one local detective as a "fledgling serial killer" for the murder of a beloved Miami Herald employee. Florida executed Michael Tanzi on Tuesday, 25 years after the murder of beloved Miami Herald employee Janet Acosta, who was attacked in broad daylight on her lunch break in 2000. Michael Tanzi, 48, was executed by lethal injection at the Florida State Prison in Raiford and pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. ET.

South Carolina executes Mikal Mahdi

Mikal Mahdi, 42, was executed for the 2004 murder of 56-year-old James Myers A man facing the death penalty for committing two murders was executed by firing squad on Friday, the second such execution in the US state of South Carolina this year. Mikal Mahdi, 42, was executed for the 2004 murder of 56-year-old James Myers, an off-duty police officer, and the murder of a convenience store employee three days earlier. According to a statement from the prison, "the execution was performed by a three-person firing squad at 6:01 pm (2201 GMT)," with Mahdi pronounced dead four minutes later.

Afghanistan | Four men publicly executed by Taliban with relatives of victims shooting them 'six or seven times' at sport stadium

Four men have been publicly executed by the Taliban, with relatives of their victims shooting them several times in front of spectators at a sport stadium. Two men were shot around six to seven times by a male relative of the victims in front of spectators in Qala-i-Naw, the centre of Afghanistan's Badghis province, witnesses told an AFP journalist in the city. The men had been 'sentenced to retaliatory punishment' for shooting other men, after their cases were 'examined very precisely and repeatedly', the statement said. 'The families of the victims were offered amnesty and peace but they refused.'

USA | Why the firing squad may be making a comeback

South Carolina plans to execute Mikal Mahdi on Friday for the murder of a police officer, draping a hood over his head and firing three bullets into his heart. The choice to die by firing squad – rather than lethal injection or the electric chair – was Mahdi’s own, his attorney said last month: “Faced with barbaric and inhumane choices, Mikal Mahdi has chosen the lesser of three evils.” If it proceeds, Mahdi’s execution would be the latest in a recent string of events that have put the spotlight on the firing squad as a handful of US death penalty states explore alternatives to lethal injection, by far the nation’s dominant execution method.

I spent 16 years in solitary in South Carolina. This is what it did to me. | Opinion

South Carolinian Randy Poindexter writes about the effects 16 years of solitary confinement had on him ahead of South Carolina’s planned execution of Mikal Mahdi , who spent months in solitary as a young man. For 16 years, I lived in a concrete cell. Twenty-three hours a day, every day, for more than 3,000 days, South Carolina kept me in solitary confinement. I was a young man before I was sent to solitary — angry, untreated and unwell. I made mistakes. But I wasn’t sentenced to madness. That’s what solitary did to me. My mental health worsened with each passing day. At first, paranoia and depression set in. Then, hallucinations and self-mutilation. I talked to people who weren’t there. I cut myself to feel something besides despair. I could do nothing as four of my friends and fellow prisoners took their own lives rather than endure another day of torturous isolation.

South Carolina | Man who ambushed off-duty cop to face firing squad in second execution of its kind

Mikal Mahdi, 48, who was found guilty of killing an off-duty police officer and a convenience store worker, is the second inmate scheduled to executed by South Carolina's new firing squad A murderer who ambushed and shot an off duty police officer eight times before burning his body in a killing spree is set to become the second person to die by firing squad. South Carolina's highest court has rejected the last major appeal from Mikal Mahdi, 41, who is to be put to death with three bullets to the heart at 6pm on April 11 at the Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia. Mahdi's lawyers said his original lawyers put on a shallow case trying to spare his life that didn't call on relatives, teachers or people who knew him and ignored the impact of weeks spent in solitary confinement in prison as a teen.

Louisiana | Lawyers of Jessie Hoffman speak about their final moments before execution

As Louisiana prepared its first execution in 15 years, a team of lawyers from Loyola Law were working to save Jessie Hoffman’s life. “I was a young lawyer three years out of law school, and Jessie was almost finished with his appeals at that time, and my boss told me we needed to file something for Jessie because he’s in danger of being executed,” Kappel said. Kappel and her boss came up with a civil lawsuit to file that said since they wouldn’t give him a protocol for his execution, he was being deprived of due process, and the lawsuit was in the legal process for the next 10 years.

Lethal Injection, Electric Chair, or Firing Squad? An Inhumane Decision for Death Row Prisoners

South Carolina resumed executions with the firing squad killing of Brad Sigmon last month. Mikal Madhi’s execution date is days away. The curtain shrieked as it was yanked open to reveal a 67-year-old man tied to a chair. His arms were pulled uncomfortably behind his back. The red bull’s-eye target on his chest rose and fell as he desperately attempted to still his breathing. The man, Brad Sigmon, smiled at his attorney, Bo King, seated in the front row before guards placed a black bag over his head. King said Sigmon appeared to be trying his best to put on a brave face for those who had come to bear witness.

Execution date set for prisoner transferred to Oklahoma to face death penalty

An inmate who was transferred to Oklahoma last month to face the death penalty now has an execution date. George John Hanson, also known as John Fitzgerald Hanson, is scheduled to die on June 12 for the 1999 murder of 77-year-old Mary Bowles. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals on Tuesday set the execution date. The state’s Pardon and Parole Board has a tentative date of May 7 for Hanson’s clemency hearing, executive director Tom Bates said.

Arizona | The cruelty of isolation: There’s nothing ‘humane’ about how we treat the condemned

On March 19, I served as a witness to the execution of a man named Aaron Gunches, Arizona’s first since 2022. During his time on death row, he begged for death and was ultimately granted what is likely more appropriately described as an emotionless state-assisted suicide. This experience has profoundly impacted me, leading to deep reflection on the nature of death, humanity, and the role we play in our final moments. When someone is in the end stages of life, we talk about hospice care, comfort, care, easing suffering and humane death. We strive for a “good death” — a peaceful transition. I’ve seen good ones, and I’ve seen bad, unplanned ones.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog