New Mexico abolishes the death penalty
New Mexico has abolished its death penalty, the Seattle Times reports. Gov. Bill Richardson (Dem) was a former supporter of capital punishment; he has changed his position and, the bill easily having passed the NM house and senate, signed it into law.
New Mexico has a substantial Catholic population – on the order of a quarter of the population – and so one would expect that to play against the death penalty. The timing is interesting, coming relatively soon after the election of Obama but quite a long way away from the next set of elections. Back in 2007, as I mentioned here, New Jersey became the first state to abolish the death penalty since it was re-introduced at the federal level; NM is the second.
I cannot help but be glad that the death penalty here has been abolished, given that Sean Hodgson had his conviction quashed yesterday after a twenty-seven year long miscarriage of justice.
Congratulations to Rep. Gail Chasey for introducing bill HB285.
xD.
