Colorado Gov. Hickenlooper: If You Don’t Reelect Me, I’ll Let This Murderer Off Death Row

Colorado’s Democratic governor John Hickenlooper reportedly offered an interesting ultimatum about convicted killer Nathan Dunlap, potentially hanging Dunlap’s fate on the outcome of this November’s gubernatorial election.

The Denver Post reports that Hickenlooper indicated in an unaired CNN interview from February that if a Republican candidate were to beat him this fall he might grant clemency to Dunlap, who is on death row after he killed four people in a 1993 shooting rampage.

He gave Dunlap a temporary reprieve last year after the man was diagnosed with severe bipolar disorder. At the time of the interview, former U.S. representative Tom Tancredo, who had insisted Dunlap should face capital punishment, was the leading candidate in the Republican primary.

“If they . . . somehow they won, there are obviously remedies that the governor could do,” the governor said about what he would potentially do as a lame duck if Tancredo or another Republican won. “I could do a full clemency between election day and the end of the year. There are a number of different opportunities to make sure that doesn’t happen. Again, human life should not be a political football.”

Earlier this month, Hickenlooper announced that he no longer supports the death penalty. He had supported it in his first run for governor in 2010, and last year, he halted the Democratic legislature’s efforts to repeal the state’s death penalty by indicating he would veto the bill.

In June, Tancredo lost the Republican primary to former representative Bob Beauprez, who has also stated he would move forward to make sure “justice is served” with Dunlap’s execution. Beauprez said Hickenlooper should immediately commute Dunlap’s sentence if he “truly does oppose the death penalty” rather than punt the responsibility to his successor.