a victims' rights group is pushing for increased funding to find the killers

With more than 1,200 unsolved homicides statewide, a victims' rights group is pushing for increased funding to find the killers. And they're proposing to do it by replacing the state's death penalty. "We have killers walking among us, murderers living in our neighbourhoods," said Howard Morton, executive director of Families of Homicide Victims and Mission Persons. "It's a shame that a life has been ended violently and the perpetrator never been prosecuted." A law passed last year established a cold case task force at the Colorado Bureau of Investigations; but with limited funding. Morton said using the $3 million appropriated annually for the state's rarely used death penalty law would speed things up. "If you're murdered in Colorado, the chances are 3 in 10 that your murderer will never be prosecuted," Morton said. Nationally, the "clearance" rate for homicides has been declining, from 76 % in 1978 to 62 % in 2005, the latest year for which federal statistics were available. Cases can go cold for reasons ranging from uncooperative witnesses to incompetent investigations.