New Mexico governor signs measure to abolish death penalty

Gov. Bill Richardson has signed legislation to repeal New Mexico's death penalty, calling it the "most difficult decision in my political life."

The bill replaces lethal injection with a sentence of life in prison 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," the Democratic governor said Wednesday at a news conference in the Capitol.

With a deadline of midnight, he said he made the decision in the late afternoon after going to the state penitentiary, where he saw the death chamber and visited the maximum security unit where those sentenced to life-without-parole could be housed.

"My conclusion was those cells are something that may be worse than death," he said. "I believe this is a just punishment."

The governor also caught a glimpse of one of the two men on death row, Robert Fry of Farmington.

The repeal doesn't affect the death sentences of Fry or Timothy Allen of Bloomfield, and Richardson said he wouldn't commute those sentences.

The repeal takes effect on July 1, and applies to crimes committed after that date. Currently, New Mexico allows for the death penalty for certain murders, including killing a child, a law enforcement or correctional officer and a witness to a crime.

New Mexico is only the second state to ban executions since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. New Jersey was the first, in 2007.

Fourteen other states do not impose capital punishment.

New Mexico has executed one person since 1960, child killer Terry Clark in 2001.

"It was never popular in New Mexico," said Patrick Tyrell, a social worker and longtime lobbyist for repeal whose brother-in-law was murdered in 1984.

Richardson said he has long believed — and still does — that the death penalty was a "just punishment" in rare cases for the worst crimes.

But he said he decided to sign the repeal legislation because of flaws in how the death penalty was applied. He pointed out that DNA evidence has shown that innocent people have been placed on death row around the country.

A former congressman and member of President Bill Clinton's cabinet, Richardson said from a foreign policy perspective the death penalty "did not seem to me to be good moral leadership and good foreign policy."

And he said he was disturbed that death rows contain so many minorities.

"The cost issue was way down," he said. "I thought it would be a compelling argument, but I don't think you can put a price on a moral issue like this."

Richardson said he didn't have confidence in the criminal justice system as the final arbiter of life and death.

"If you're going to put somebody to death, the ... criminal justice system has to be perfect, and it isn't," he said.

The governor solicited input over the weekend from state residents. He said he got to 12,000 responses by phone, e-mail and visits, with more than three-fourths in favor of repeal.

Roman Catholic Bishop Ricardo Ramirez of the Diocese of Las Cruces, who appeared with Richardson at a news conference, said the governor "has made New Mexico a leader in turning away from the death penalty with all its moral problems and issues of fairness and justice."

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops had urged the governor to sign the repeal, which church officials had lobbied hard for.

The American Civil Liberties Union called it "a historic step and a clear sign that the United States continues to make significant progress toward eradicating capital punishment once and for all."

Richardson said at the news conference that "the potential for wrongful conviction and, God forbid, execution of an innocent person stands as anathema to our very sensibilities as human beings."

Lt. Gov. Diane Denish said she delivered a handwritten note to the governor on Wednesday indicating her support for repeal.

The New Mexico Sheriffs' and Police Association opposed repeal, saying capital punishment deters violence against police officers, jailers and prison guards. District attorneys also opposed the legislation, arguing that the death penalty was a useful prosecutorial tool.

"I'm worried for our law enforcement officers who are out there courageously doing their job every night. We've lost a layer of protection and it's a sad day in New Mexico," Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White said after hearing the governor's decision.

New Mexico was one of several states considering repealing the death penalty this year.

In Montana, a proposed ban has cleared the Senate and is pending in the House. In Kansas, a bill failed to clear the Senate this week.

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On the Net:

New Mexico Legislature: www.nmlegis.gov

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The death penalty repeal is HB285.