USA - Colorado. Panel advances bill to abolish death penalty.

Panel advances bill to abolish death penalty. A bill to abolish the death penalty in Colorado advanced today when the state Senate's State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee approved it on a 3-2 party-line vote. Sen. Morgan Carroll, D-Aurora, the prime sponsor of the bill in the Senate, said $1 million, roughly a fifteenfold increase in funding for the cold-case unit, would make a difference in solving some of the state's 1,430-plus unsolved slayings. The bill squeaked by the House last week on a 33-32 vote. Carroll predicted another close vote in the full Senate after its next stop, the Appropriations Committee.