DENVER (AP) -- The Colorado House has approved a plan to eliminate the death penalty and use the money to focus on cold cases. The measure now goes to the Senate.
The measure passed Tuesday by a single vote, 33-32, after victims' relatives asked lawmakers to help with unsolved slayings.
Rep. Ed Vigil, D-Fort Garland, cast the tie-breaking vote.
The legislation would shift funds currently used to prosecute death-penalty cases to deal with the growing backlog of more than 1,400 unsolved homicides that have stymied local investigators since 1970.
(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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