| | |  Americas & Beyond | March 2009 
Rights Group Urges New Mexico to Ban Death Penalty
 Agence France-Presse
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| | The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on Monday urged New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson to sign a bill which passed in the state's legislature last week abolishing capital punishment. (AFP/Scott Olson) | |
Los Angeles – The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on Monday urged New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson to sign a bill which passed in the state's legislature last week abolishing capital punishment.
New Mexico's Senate voted Friday to end the death penalty, a measure already approved by the lower chamber.
But the bill must be signed by Richardson before it can become law. If he does, New Mexico would become the 15th US state to outlaw the death penalty.
A spokesman for the governor - a Democrat who withdrew as President Barack Obama's pick to be US commerce secretary - refused to tell AFP whether Richardson was inclined to sign or veto the bill.
"After lawmakers passed the bill on Friday, the Governor urged New Mexicans to call and email him on their thoughts of the bill," his office said in a statement, adding that more than 6,000 messages had been tallied so far.
"The Governor has until midnight on Wednesday to take action on the bill," it added.
John Holdridge, director of the ACLU's Capital Punishment Project, said it was "welcome news that Governor Richardson is giving considerable thought to the need to abolish the death penalty in New Mexico.
"He deserves credit for taking seriously the reality that the bankrupting system of capital punishment cannot be statistically or legally defended," he said.
"Beyond the exorbitant cost to the taxpayers of maintaining the death penalty, there are serious and rampant flaws inherent to our nation's capital punishment system that cannot be ignored," he added.
The prominent civil rights group also believes that death penalty is unfairly applied, and "is plagued by racial, economic and geographic discrimination," Holdridge said.
Supporters of the measure argue that replacing the death sentence with life in prison without parole will save the state more than one million dollars each year. Opponents say they believe it remains a deterrent to the most heinous crimes.
New Mexico has executed only one inmate since the US Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. It currently has two inmates awaiting execution |
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