UPDATED: Bill to Abolish the Death Penalty Moves to NM House Floor

UPDATE 2/9/07: HB 190--Abolish the Death Penalty Will Have a Floor Vote on Monday, February 12th. The House usually convenes at 10:30 AM and bills begin to be voted on at about 11:30 AM. At this point  it is impossible to be more precise about the schedule.

Please contact the Representatives below. Call their office today and Monday (starting at 8:00 AM) or send them an email over the weekend. Please make the emails very short--2 to 3 sentences are plenty. Calls and emails should always be extremely polite and respectful.

Rep. Thomas Garcia is new so has never voted on the issue. The other Reps voted against repeal in 2005 but are thoughtful legislators who value hearing from their constituents. Thanks for your help and support.

Kathleen MacRae, Director
NM Coalition to Repeal the Death Penalty
PO Box 8552, Santa Fe, NM 87504
505-986-9536 x22 or 505-681-3920
kmacrae@nmrepeal.org

Contact these Reps:
Rep. Joseph Cervantes, 986-4249   
cervanteslaw@zianet.com
    
Rep. John Heaton, 986-4432
jheaton@caverns.com
    
Rep. Dona Irwin, 986-4249   
donagale@zianet.com

Rep. Kathy McCoy, 986-4214
katrina@swcp.com

Rep. Jane Powdrell-Culbert, 986-4467
jpandp@comcast.net
    
Rep. Thomas Garcia, 986-4242
ocate@hotmail.com

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From the NM House Leadership:
Santa Fe, NM – A bill to abolish the death penalty received a do pass recommendation from the House Judiciary Committee yesterday with a 9 to 3 vote. House Bill 190 will now move to the House floor. The measure had previously passed the House Public Affairs Committee by a 4-3 margin. An almost identical bill to repeal the death penalty and institute the sentence of life without parole, passed the House of Representatives in 2005 with a bi-partisan vote of 38 to 31.

Rep. Gail Chasey has sponsored similar legislation since 1999. During testimony she said that the death penalty discriminates against people of color and those who live in rural areas or are poor. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, 53% of men and women on death row are African American or Hispanic.

Rep. Chasey emphasized that the state spends millions of dollars a year on the capital punishment system even though New Mexico has had only one execution since 1960. Andrea Vigil, whose husband was murdered in Santa Fe seven years ago, asked that state resources be used to expand services for the families who have lost a loved one to murder not to continue the death penalty system.

Rep. Antonio Maestas (D-Albuquerque) spoke in support of repeal of the death penalty as a former prosecutor. He explained how resources are diverted away from prosecuting other violent crimes when a death penalty case takes precedence. He suggested that the state needs to scrutinize all of its expenditures very carefully when we live in a world of scarce resources. “It astounds me that the state will spend millions of dollars every year on the death penalty when we’ve had one execution in 47 years. If this money was being spent on any other program with the same result, we would be laughed out of town,” he said. “Imagine if we allocated $50 million dollars to an economic development program and they reported back to us after a year that they had created one small business.”

Rep. Elias Barela (D-Valencia) also supported death penalty repeal. He said, “I think it is inconsistent that people will see life in a stem cell, but will not recognize it sitting in a jail cell.”

Editor's Note: The New Mexico Coalition to Repeal the Death Penalty is a primary advocacy group that is fighting to abolish the death penalty in the state and provides many resources on the issue. It's organizational members include:

• Indian Bar Association
• Marketing Communications Group, Inc.
• Murder Victims' Families for Reconciliation-NM
• NAACP-NM
• National Association of Social Workers-NM
• NM Catholic Conference
• NM Conference of Churches
• NM Criminal Defense Lawyers Association
• NM Public Health Association