Capital punishment in New Mexico

Capital punishment was abolished in the U.S. State of New Mexico in 2009.

The law replaced the death penalty for the most serious crimes with life imprisonment and life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. This makes New Mexico the fifteenth state in the U.S. to abolish capital punishment.

Since the death penalty was reinstated by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1976 (in the case of Gregg v. Georgia), only one person has been executed in New Mexico. This was Terry Clark, who was put to death in 2001, by lethal injection, for the murder of a child. The penalty was abolished by House Bill 2085,[1] which was signed by Governor Bill Richardson on March 18, 2009 and came into force on July 1 of that year. Section 6 of the law states that "The provisions of this act apply to crimes committed on or after July 1, 2009".

Two offenders still on death row

Because this legislation is not retroactive, it is still possible for convicts to be executed for crimes committed before July 1, 2009.[2] There are two men on death row in New Mexico whose crimes and trials took place before 2009:[3]

  • Robert Ray Fry, bludgeoning and stabbing of a Shiprock woman in 2000 (he has also three other murder convictions).[4]
  • Timothy Allen, for the kidnapping, rape, and murder by strangulation of a teenage girl in 1994

Only one death penalty trial has taken place since 2009 for crimes that were committed beforehand, that of Michael Astorga, and because the jurors in that case were unable to agree on a death sentence, he received life imprisonment.[5]

Both Allen and Fry have filed petitions for writ of habeas corpus asserting that the death sentences in their cases are unconstitutional, both generally, and as applied to them individually.[6] The conundrum is that if the New Mexico Supreme Court (or, later, the U.S. Supreme Court) happens to agree with Allen and Fry, their sentences will automatically become "life sentences." That is, they will both be subject to serving a term of 30 years before becoming eligible for parole. This is because, at the time each of their crimes for which they were convicted and sentenced to death New Mexico law provided only two options for sentencing in a capital offense: Life with the possibility of parole after 30 years, or Death. In 2009, the New Mexico legislature prospectively eliminated the death penalty, replacing death with a "true life" sentence—meaning, life without the possibility of parole. But the ex post facto clause of the constitution (art. 1, sec. 10) prevents the application of the life-without-the-possibility-of-parole to cases where capital crimes were committed in New Mexico before July 1, 2009.[7]

Governor Martinez seeks reinstatement

Republican Governor Susana Martinez announced on August 17, 2016, that she will introduce legislation to reinstate the death penalty in the 2017 legislative session.[8] On October 14, 2016, the New Mexico House of Representatives approved the bill on a 36-30 vote. The bill provided the death penalty for only three kinds of murder: child murder, murder of an on-duty police officer, and murder of a prison employee by an inmate.[9]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Full text of House Bill 2085
  2. ↑ "Governor OK with Astorga capital case"
  3. ↑ "Death Penalty Is Repealed in New Mexico". The New York Times. March 18, 2009. Retrieved May 1, 2011.
  4. ↑ "Court Upholds Death Sentence Given To Robert Fry". Albuquerquejournal. December 8, 2005. Retrieved September 21, 2016.
  5. ↑ "Astorga Spared Death Sentence". Retrieved 14 December 2012.
  6. ↑ http://www.abqjournal.com/486831/new-mexico-court-to-hear-death-sentence-appeals.html
  7. ↑ http://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=11662&context=journal_articles
  8. ↑ "Martinez to pursue death penalty during 2017 legislative session". Santa Fe New Mexican. August 17, 2016. Retrieved 21 August 2016.
  9. ↑ "NM House approves death penalty". KOAT. October 16, 2016. Retrieved January 4, 2017.
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