The conference committee in the Colorado Legislature has reinstated the cynical, cruel, divisive strategy of artificially pitting two groups of murder victims' families against each other, previously noted here. Jessica Fender has this story for the Denver Post.

Update: The story linked above has been updated (1:32 MDT) and is now coauthored by Lynn Bartels.

In his first comments on the bill, Gov. Bill Ritter said today that he thinks the proposal should not have been tied to funding cold cases.

"Those are two separate issues, and I told the sponsor of the bill they were wrong to do that," he said. "You don't get a pure debate about either."

Better late than never.