NM House votes to abolish the death penalty

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El Paso Times

By DEBORAH BAKER / Associated Press
Posted: 02/12/2009

SANTA FE - The House of Representatives voted Wednesday to abolish New Mexico's death penalty and replace it with a sentence of life in prison without parole.

The legislation passed on a vote of 40-28, and headed to the Senate.

Twice before, in 2005 and 2007, the House approved a death penalty repeal only to have it fail in the Senate.

This year, repeal supporters are banking on a different outcome because there are new members in that chamber.

"If everyone who told us they would vote with us stays, we will pass the Senate," predicted Viki Elkey, executive director of the New Mexico Coalition to Repeal the Death Penalty.

A final hurdle would be Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson, who has been a supporter of capital punishment in the past.

Asked about it this week, he said only, "I'll take a look at it."

There are two men on death row, Robert Fry of Farmington and Timothy Allen of Bloomfield, whose executions would not be prevented by the passage of the bill.

New Mexico has executed one prisoner since 1960, child killer Terry Clark in 2001. The state uses lethal injection.

Rep. Gail Chasey, D-Albuquerque, who has sponsored similar legislation for the past decade, called repeal a "thoughtful and practical step."

"We no longer need the death penalty. Its costs far outweigh its benefits," she said.

Chasey contended capital punishment is expensive, doesn't deter violent crime and is imposed in a discriminatory manner.

And the state has come close to executing innocent people, she said. She cited a case from the 1970s in which four California bikers were on death row for the murder of a University of New Mexico student until the real killer came forward.

Supporters of repeal say the resources the state puts into capital punishment could better be spent helping murder victims' families.

State law limits the death penalty to certain murder cases, including those involving kidnapping, rape, the murder of police officers, prison guards or inmates, and murder for hire and murder of a witness.

Opponents of the bill said such victims' families deserve to keep the option of urging prosecutors to seek the death penalty.
"I don't want to take that away from the victims' families," said Rep. William Rehm, R-Albuquerque.

And opponents argued that murderers in prison for life - with nothing else left to lose - would be a danger to prison guards and to other inmates, and could escape and kill again.

Rendering such killers harmless is "a false hope," said Rep. Dennis Kintigh, a Roswell Republican.

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NM Repeal is a statewide, grassroots coalition formed in 1997 by a concerned group of citizens that has now grown to over 3,600 individual members and 100 supporting organizations in 2009.

We work to repeal the death penalty in New Mexico and replace it with life without parole. Additionally, we support legislation that would divert the millions of dollars wasted each year on the death penalty in New Mexico into programs for murder victims’ families.

As we push on with our work in 2009, NM Repeal will be organizing speaking and outreach events around the state to educate the public about the death penalty, publishing opinion pieces and letters to the editor in local newspapers, encouraging our members to let elected officials know they are opposed to the death penalty, and working with family members who have lost a loved one to murder.

Please join us today as we push to repeal the death penalty in New Mexico. You can find updated news here, along with ways you can get involved and make a difference!

We're glad to have you as part of our community. Please explore the resources available here and check back often for highlights of news from NM and across the country.

We also welcome your feedback. Contact us at [e-mail] with your comments and suggestions.
Thanks!

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Please thank Governor Richardson for reconsidering his position on the death penalty and encourage him to support HB 285 to abolish the death penalty in New Mexico, and also support HB 211 that allows for paid or unpaid leave for family members to attend court proceedings and HB 284 that expands services to murder victim family members in New Mexico.

Optional points to make in your message to the Governor:

It's about helping murder victim families:

New Mexico will become the first state to TRULY put victims' families first. When murder happens, it is the family of the victim that suffers the most and the longest - yet our criminal justice system is focused on how to treat the murderer. It is time for the focus to return to the family, to address the harsh realities of losing a loved one.

The Catastrophic Crime and Family Restitution Program would replace the death penalty with true life without parole and create an innovative package of services for the families of murder victims - the first such program in the country.

This legislation is the toughest on criminals and the most compassionate to the families of the victim.

Public opinion supports this package of bills:
A statewide December 2008 poll of likely New Mexican voters showed that 64% support replacing the death penalty with life without parole plus restitution to victims' families.

Keeping the death penalty means risking a wrongful execution:
At least 130 men and women who were convicted and sentenced to death have been released from death row nationwide since 1973 - less than 15% of them through DNA evidence. Rather, it is false witness testimony, police misconduct and prosecutorial misconduct that put innocent men and women on death row in this country.

In 1974, New Mexico sentenced to death four innocent men, Thomas Gladis, Ronald Keine, Clarence Smith and Richard Greer, based on false witness testimony and police misconduct.


The death penalty costs too much:

According to the NM Public Defender Department, the abolition of the death penalty would save New Mexico several million dollars each year. The costs of the death penalty are borne systemically, impacting the Public Defender Department, the Attorney General's office, the various District Attorney offices, and the trial and the appellate courts.

In December, 2004, Supreme Court Chief Justice Bosson estimated that the cost of a death penalty case was 6 times higher than other murder cases in New Mexico.

Thank you!
www.NCADP.org