Governor Bill Richardson signed a bill into law today which will eliminate capital punishment in New Mexico.
With this decision, New Mexico becomes the 15th state without the death penalty on the books, pending ongoing legislation battles in several states considering amending their capital-punishment laws.
Richardson's statement upon signing the bill:
"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.
He noted that more than 130 death row inmates have been exonerated in the past 10 years, including four in New Mexico.
"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.
Critics of the death penalty as currently constituted in most capital-punishment states generally oppose the practice for three reasons: they argue that the wrong people are sentenced to death too frequently (sometimes with convictions so flimsy a group of journalism students can get them overturned), that there are insufficient protections to ensure the death penalty is fairly applied across racial and class boundaries, or that the practice is simply barbaric and inhumane.
If you believe any of these things to be true, you should welcome Governor Richardson's decision today.
Capital punishment remains popular nationwide, and many Democrats support it, including President Barack Obama, President Bill Clinton, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, and former Vice-President Al Gore.
The most prominent Democrat in recent years to oppose the death penalty in almost all cases (excluding convicted terrorists) is Senator John Kerry, the 2004 presidential nominee. Like Senator Kerry, I'm originally from Massachusetts, and it has always been a point of personal pride with me that my native state does not support the death penalty.
It's likely that capital punishment will endure in much of the United States, perhaps even in the bulk of the nation, for the duration of our lives. Nevertheless, every state which eliminates the death penalty from its books brings us one step closer to living in a more humane, decent and circumspect nation.
Some will disagree, but it's my personal opinion that the sincerest of congratulations and gratitude are due to Governor Richardson and the New Mexico legislature.