20 hours Ago By [email protected] (Rachael Wright)
Thirty-Five Years Ago This Week: As he departed for Hungary to work as an election observer, Colorado Republican Party Chairman Bruce Benson seemed to be at ease that the governor’s race had been sewn up with Colorado Springs Mayor Bob Issac set to launch his bid later that week. But out of nowhere, Mike Strang announced that he was abandoning his effort to recapture his 3rd Congressional District seat and instead running for governor. “I talked to both, Bruce Benson and Bob Issac before I talked to the press,” Strang said.
“Well, actually I left a message for Bruce Benson. He called me later that night ..
. he sounded both surprised and disappointed.” Strang said that he had every intention to put on a “spirited primary,” and that if Bob Issac won, "I’ve told him I’ll back him in the general election.
” But Issac said he first learned about Strang’s campaign launch from the media and not from Strang. “There is absolutely no way the Republican Party can win if we have a primary,” Issac said. “If there’s a primary, as I’ve said all along, it’s off.
” Fifteen Years Ago: A bill that sought to make the death of a fetus as a result of the murder of the mother a capital offense was squashed in committee on the grounds that attempting to define when life “begins” was too controversial. “Pregnant women’s relatives should have the right to witness justice for the loss of their daughter and their hopes for an unborn grandchild,” said Senate Bill 10-113’s sponsor, Sen. David Schultheis, R-Colorado Springs.
The bill would have given district attorneys the ability to pursue capital punishment for “the death of a fetus that survives outside the womb, but subsequently dies as a result of the perpetrator’s actions.” In every interview with the press and in committee testimony Schultheis reiterated that the legislation was a domestic violence bill and not an anti-abortion bill. “This bill closes a gap in our law that basically provides immunity to a perpetrator for such a horrible crime,” said Sen.
Bill Cadman, R-Colorado Springs. Schultheis’s bill drew wide support from district attorneys across Colorado. Dan May, the district attorney for the 4th Judicial District, brought the issue to Schultheis and said that in some trials the fact that the victim was pregnant was ruled irrelevant by the judge and affected both the court’s verdict and the sentencing.
“The 2002 Laci Peterson murder brought national attention to this issue,” May said. “Her husband was convicted on two counts of murder.” A press release from the Colorado Republican Party noted that 37 other states had laws on their books addressing fetal homicide, which had prompted the federal government to pass the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, making it a crime to harm a fetus during an assault on the mother.
“We do not dispute the need to prosecute violent crimes against women to the fullest extent of the law,” said Kevin Paul, attorney for Rocky Mountain Planned Parenthood. “But this bill would have opened up a constitutional can of worms. The legislation would have legally given a fetus personhood status because only people can be murdered.
” Addie Lord of the ACLU also testified that the bill would have created a new capital crime and expressed that the ACLU had deep concerns that the bill, by assigning rights to a fetus, would cause conflict with the mother’s rights. May told The Colorado Statesman that he was deeply disappointed by the Senate State, Veterans & Military Affairs Committee’s decision. “Colorado is one of the few states where if someone intentionally murders a pregnant woman, killing her and the fetus, that doesn’t call that a double homicide,” said May.
Rachael Wright is the author of several novels including The Twins of Strathnaver, with degrees in Political Science and History from Colorado Mesa University, and is a contributing writer to Colorado Politics, the Colorado Springs Gazette and the Denver Gazette..
