Colorado shoots down one-judge panel. (State News).

For the third year, an effort to throw out Colorado's three-judge panel in death penalty cases in favor of a one-judge system was defeated in the state Legislature, reports The Denver Post. The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 4-3 to kill the bill, which would have left the ultimate life-or-death decision in the hands of the presiding judge in capital murder trials. Sen. Ken Chlouber (R-Leadville), the bill's sponsor, said the committee defied the "will of the people" who voted in favor of the death penalty in Colorado. He added that the three-judge panels have not returned death sentences often enough. But Professor Pat Furman of the University of Denver, who represents the Colorado Bar Association, said that inflicting the death penalty should reflect the conscience of the community. "Three judges better-reflect that conscience." Furman and other witnesses also testified that having only one judge decide would "dangerously overpoliticize the judiciary." In urging the committee to approve the bill, Chlouber cited eight death penalty cases that have gone before the three-judge panels since 1995, only three of which returned unanimous death sentences. In the other cases, the judges rendered split decisions, resulting in life sentences. In 1995, the Legislature removed life-and-death decisions from jurors and gave the decision to three-judge panels that include the trial judge.