Convicted killer Nathan Dunlap's attorneys ask governor for clemency to avoid death penalty Hickenlooper has talked with victim's familiesPosted: 05/06/2013 Last Updated: 1 hour ago
DENVER - Lawyers for a man convicted of the slayings of four people at a restaurant where he used to work are asking Gov. John Hickenlooper to spare his life.
Nathan Dunlap's attorneys formally asked for clemency on Monday.
Dunlap faces execution the week of Aug. 18-24 for the 1993 shooting deaths of four people at a Chuck E. Cheese pizza restaurant in Aurora.
Dunlap was 19 years old when he walked into the restaurant at closing time and shot five people in the head, before taking $1,500 from a safe. Three teenagers and a mother of two died. One person survived the shooting.
Dunlap had recently been fired from the restaurant.
He was convicted and sentenced to be executed in 1996, and the U.S. Supreme Court turned down his last guaranteed appeal in February.
Hickenlooper hasn't said how he would respond to a request for clemency. He met Friday and Saturday with victims' family members and others to hear their views.
Dunlap's attorney are trying to stop the execution.
"We will not stop trying to save Mr. Dunlap's life now or next week or the week after," said Phil Cherner, Dunlap's attorney. "We represent a very remorseful client, and it is a tragedy that this thing is moving forward."
(NO...the tragedy is four people getting shot in the head at point blank range ambulance chaser!)
However, former prosecutor Jim Peters says Dunlap was a criminal before the Chuck E. Cheese shooting and had been involved in a number of treatment programs before the shootings.
"He had all the benefits that our society could give to him, and then after that what he decided to do was walk into a Chuck E. Cheese, wait until everybody left and then come out firing," said Peters. "He has never expressed remorse. He's only said that it felt better than sex and they're all stupid. There are very few cases in my mind that warrant the death penalty, and this is one of them."
Since Colorado reinstituted the death penalty in 1976, only one person has been executed. Gary Lee Davis was executed in 1997.
The four people who died in that Aurora restaurant were Sylvia Crowell, Colleen O'Conner, Benjamin Grant and Margaret Kohlberg. Bobby Stephens was shot, but survived.www.thedenverchannel.comWell I'll be damned...a DP article that mentions the victims!