14 DAY TRIAL // The Supreme Court is refusing to hear the case of Nathan Dunlap, known as the 90's Aurora Chuck E. Cheese killer.
The Denver Post mentions a list of unsigned orders issued on Tuesday, February 19, in which they refuse hearing the case.
Dunlap has been on death row for more than a decade, setting a record for longest serving death-row prisoner in the state of Colorado. His appearance in front of the Supreme Court would have been the latest in a long series of appeals and his final one.
The highest Court's dismissal is almost tantamount to a lethal injection guarantee, as the execution date can now be set in Dunlap's case.
However, the convict can still file other appeals, and his defense team is preparing a clemency petition, which will be filed with Governor John Hickenlooper.
“Mr. Dunlap should spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole. [...] What happened is tragic. But taking his life isn't going to change that,” attorneys Phil Cherner describes.
Former Arapahoe County District Attorney prosecuting the Dunlap case, Jim Peters is lobbying for the sentence to be enforced.
“We're one step closer. [...] It's not finalized. But we've taken another major step forward,” he says.
“I will continue to seek imposition of the death sentence in this case, in the interests of justice. Our office has spent nineteen years prosecuting Nathan Dunlap for the preplanned and deliberate murders of the unsuspecting three teenagers and one adult victim who had the terrible misfortune to be working the night shift on December 14, 1993 at Chuck E. Cheese in Aurora,” acting DA George Brauchler adds.
Angry over losing his job at the Chuck E. Cheese's, Dunlap waited for closing time while hiding out in a restroom and fatally shot 50-year-old manager Margaret Kohlberg. He also killed employees Sylvia Crowell, 19, Ben Grant, 17 and Colleen O'Connor, 17.