New Mexico Governor Repeals Death Penalty

[Jeff1857]

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson signed a bill Wednesday repealing the death penalty in his state, his office confirmed.


New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson signed legislation repealing the state's death penalty.

 "Regardless of my personal opinion about the death penalty, I do not have confidence in the criminal justice system as it currently operates to be the final arbiter when it comes to who lives and who dies for their crime," Richardson said in a statement Wednesday.

"If the State is going to undertake this awesome responsibility, the system to impose this ultimate penalty must be perfect and can never be wrong."

The bill replaces the death penalty with life without the possibility of parole.

"Faced with the reality that our system for imposing the death penalty can never be perfect, my conscience compels me to replace the death penalty with a solution that keeps society safe," he said.

Prior to signing the legislation, Richardson received thousands of e-mails and phone calls on whether he should sign legislation to abolish the death penalty, his office says.

As of noon Wednesday, the governor's office said it had received 10,847 phone calls, e-mails and walk-in comments from people who wanted to voice their opinions on the legislation.

Of those, 8,102 were for a repeal of the death penalty and 2,745 were against it, according to Richardson's office. The number included phone calls, e-mails and walk-ins to the governor's office, the statement said.

In addition, Richardson met Monday with more than 100 New Mexicans to discuss the issue, his office said.

The state Legislature approved the measure Friday.

Other states also have considered repealing their capital punishment laws this year. In Kansas, state senators voted Monday to send such a bill back to committee, The Kansas City Star reported.

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Wonder how many of those calls were from Euro Trailer Trash?

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/03/18/new.mexico.death.penalty/index.html?section=cnn_latest

[LV Eric]

he is the crooked guy Obama appointed for some cabinent position, he declined it when he got popped for awarding a contract to a company that he took contributions from a couple years previously. Glad he didnt become a national figure, I hope what he did in NM dosent cath on eleswhere, since they have only enforced th DP once in the past 30 years in NM there is no real loss here-except for his influence to other Governors.

he sucks!!

[Granny B]

"Wonder how many of those calls were from Euro Trailer Trash?"

Probably about 99.99%.

I knew Richardson was anti dp.  I have been afraid he would be chicken sh*t enough to repeal the death penalty.  He just of every policeman, sheriff, law enforcement, and pro dp in NM.  I hope this gets him voted out of office at the next election. 

[JT]

I'd be interested in knowing how these two quotes, both from different paragraphs of the same press release, can be reconciled:

"Regardless of my personal opinion about the death penalty, I do not have confidence in the criminal justice system as it currently operates to be the final arbiter when it comes to who lives and who dies for their crime. Faced with the reality that our system for imposing the death penalty can never be perfect, my conscience compels me to replace the death penalty with a solution that keeps society safe."

"Throughout my adult life, I have been a firm believer in the death penalty as a just punishment -- in very rare instances, and only for the most heinous crimes. I still believe that."

So, he theoretically supports the death penalty but he believes the justice system is not capable of administering it "perfectly?"  That, in effect, means he is an anti.  But one of his declared stances during his campaign for the governorship was that he supported capital punishment.  Not only is he the subject of investigations pertaining to alleged corruption while in office, he lied to the people of New Mexico to ensure his election to that office.

Fantastic.

[Michael]

Of those, 8,102 were for a repeal of the death penalty and 2,745 were against it, according to Richardson's office.
Very interesting, it seems NM is a multimeadia-voting-democracy. 

the system to impose this ultimate penalty must be perfect and can never be wrong
In the actual condition it seems to be perfect, no innocent had been executed since 1976.
Also a politican had to fix the system that it works smooth and correct. I think this is his job.
And how about criminals who confessed to their crimes.

I think all he said are cheap excuses for his political motivated repeal of the DP.

Michael

[Henrik - Sweden]

In the actual condition it seems to be perfect, no innocent had been executed since 1976.

As I have stated in previous posts: We don't know for sure in any direction. What we know is that there are a number of persons who have been exonerated, some of them after being very close to an execution. We also know that there is a couple of cases that actually went to execution where the strength of the evidence is highly disputed, to say the least.

We can also put it this way? Someone here willing to bet their last bucks that there will be no cases in the coming 10 years where some executed inmate will be posthumous exonerated because of actual innocence?

[Jeff1857]

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - The repeal of the repeal of the death penalty is not dead; it hits New Mexico airwaves Monday.

Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White is spear heading an effort to collect signatures to add a referendum to the 2010 general election ballot.

"It's a powerful commercial; the death penalty was put in place so that the most heartless killers will be met with the most severe punishment," White said. "The anti death penalty folks are very well organized they have a lot of money and they will fight us so that we do not even get the point where we can do signatures."

Sheriff White said he is already getting opposition from those groups fighting to keep the repeal in place.

White said the aim of the commercial is to raise awareness about why the death penalty should be reinstated.

"It is a layer of protection for all law enforcement," White said.

Anti death penalty groups claim capital punishment does not deter crime, and that states are unable to prevent accidental executions of innocent people.

"Regardless of my personal opinion about the death penalty, I do not have confidence in the criminal justice system as it currently operates to be the final arbiter when it comes to who lives and who dies for their crime," Gov. Bill Richardson said after signing the bill last March.

Richardson struggled with his decision, doing research and taking time to visit death row in Santa Fe.

Even a day later he had his doubts saying he would still like to see an accused cop killer sentenced to the death penalty.

Since 1912 when New Mexico became a state, there have only been three statewide ballot referendums.

Only one passed. The most recent was in 1964.

http://www.krqe.com/dpp/news/crime/crime_krqe_albuquerque_death_penalty_repeal_commercial_new_mexico_richardson_200904051830

[Michael]

"The anti death penalty folks are very well organized they have a lot of money and they will fight us so that we do not even get the point where we can do signatures."

This is the BIG problem.  it´s like in the WWW - they use every possibilty to spread their lies and propaganda.

Michael

[Aussie4DR]

Wonder how many of those calls were from Euro Trailer Trash?

Indeed. If he were fair dinkum about polling his constituents he should have a proper poll, a referendum. Not just a phone poll.
One can only hope when he gets some new neighbors, they turn out to be criminals his policies have freed.
A long shot, but dreams are free, right?