Bob Autobee 'drops out' of death penalty battle for son's killer, Edward Montour

Bob Autobee "drops out" of death penalty battle for son's killer, Edward Montour

By Alan Prendergast Tue., Dec. 4 2012 at 1:16 PM

Montour.

Frustrated by a decade of legal delays and setbacks, the father of slain state corrections officer Eric Autobee says that he now opposes further efforts to obtain the death penalty for inmate Edward Montour Jr. for the 2002 murder. In a recent interview, Bob Autobee also blasted the leadership of the Colorado Department of Corrections, saying that a fatal attack on another prison employee in September shows that officials have failed to adopt adequate security measures to protect staff from dangerous inmates.

"We've dropped out of the legal process because I can't see putting Montour to death for his part in this murder and not punishing the state for its part," Autobee says. "They've learned nothing from my son's death. We're losing control of the prisons."

Eric Autobee.

Already serving a life sentence for killing his infant daughter, Montour attacked 23-year-old Eric Autobee at the Limon Correctional Facility with a heavy ladle he'd obtained from the prison kitchen. It was the first inmate killing of an officer in the DOC in 73 years. Montour pleaded guilty to first degree murder, but the Colorado Supreme Court threw out his death sentence in 2007 because it hadn't been imposed by a jury. Eighteenth Judicial District Attorney Carol Chambers and the Colorado Attorney General's Office have been seeking to get the death penalty reinstated in his case for the past five years.

Chambers's successor, George Brauchler, faces a critical decision about whether to continue to pursue the costly execution battle at a hearing scheduled for February. Montour lawyer David Lane says his client will withdraw his guilty plea if the state keeps pushing for the death penalty, but he's agreed to "stay in a little supermax cell for the rest of his life" and not contest his conviction if the prosecution will forego its quest for execution.

Although Colorado currently has three inmates on death row, it's only managed to execute one prisoner -- Gary Davis -- in the past forty years. Autobee says he supports Lane's proposal, calling the death penalty in Colorado "a joke" and pointing out that Chuck E. Cheese killer Nathan Dunlap has been sitting on death row for nearly twenty years now.

"Montour will probably die a natural death," Autobee says. "We're fine with that. I'm pro-death penalty, but in the situation our state is in, is it really a fair option? Ten years of my life has gone by, and we're still fighting the same battle."

Continue to read more of our interview with Bob Autobee.

Tags:

Carol Chambers, death penalty, Edward Montour Jr., Eric Autobee, Gary Davis, George Brauchler, Mary Ricard, Miguel Contreras-Perez, Nathan Dunlap, Robert Autobee

We Recommend

dcCU

Tethering items may minimize bludgeoning but it will not eliminate strangulation.

dcCU

Many reasons were cited as to the problematic pursuit of the death penalty for this man; similar and additional reasons can be cited for others sitting on death row. That stated, the death penalty should be abolished. As an American, I feel we should not as a society legally murder our citizens, regardless that they have killed. Two wrongs don't make a right. Eons in time and millions in dollars have been wasted in attempts to gain an eye for an eye. This is not right. A complete waste of time and money where efforts and expertise are stifled instead off reaching resolutions and more effective means of protection for inmates and correctional officers. It is horrendous that we allow legalized murder of unborn children instead of educating and making readily available means to prevent pregnancy by removing the Victorian veil of social sexual stigmas that tell us discussing sex is scandalous yet we can "do it" secretly but silently. In our country it is acceptable to kill that which has no face so gradually society can accept killing anything or anyone. That is indicative of a devolving society diseased by hatred and revenge, which we as humans have no business to contend.