NM Death Penalty Repeal Bill Hearing Monday

From the Coalition to Repeal the Death Penalty:
HB 576, Repeal of NM Death Penalty
To Be Heard in Senate Rules Committee
Monday, March 7th, 8:00 AM, Room 321
Please join repeal supporters for HB 576's First Senate Committee Hearing. And don't forget to contact ALL the members of the committee, especially past supporters to help solidify their support for Monday's vote. Click for contact information.

HB 578 Employee Leave for Certain Crime Victims
Replaced by HB 356
HB 578 has been combined with another piece of similar legislation and renamed HB 356. The name of the bill, Employee Leave for Certain Crime Victims, remains the same. HB 356 improves on our original legislation, in that it provides employee leave for businesses with four or more employees instead of fifteen. HB 356 may reach the House floor for a vote as soon as tomorrow. Please contact your Representatives NOW and ask for their support of HB 356.

Santa Fe New Mexican Editorial
"Death Penalty Repeal Could Be in Bill's Favor"
The New Mexican ran an editorial encouraging Governor Richardson to help push HB 576 through the Senate and to his desk, pointing out that for Governor Bill Richardson, a signature on HB 576 may indeed help not hinder his political ambitions. Please respond to the editorial with a letter to the editor regarding Gov. Richardson's position. The text of the editorial is copied below.

Editorial 03/02/2005: Death-penalty repeal could be in Bill’s favor 
The New Mexican - March 2, 2005

Larry Sabato might be right — or maybe not: The nationally renowned political scientist told The New Mexican’s Steve Terrell in Sunday’s front-page story that the death-penalty issue is one Gov. Bill Richardson should hope to avoid if he still has national ambitions.

Seems he does: A recent addition to Richardson’s speechwriting staff is reputed to be national-class at his trade. And since the governor holds his own at speechifying on the state level, Roundhouse mitote has the guy creating statesmanlike remarks for those occasions when our high-profile guv draws nationwide attention.

So what does he do if the Legislature approves a bill ending capital punishment in New Mexico? The House of Representatives did just that on Monday. The Senate might prove more resistant to such a measure, but the very fact that one of our state’s legislative chambers finally said no to the death penalty puts at least hypothetical pressure on the governor: What if a bill ending the death penalty reaches his desk?

As professor Sabato sees it, it’s a no-win situation: Veto it, and incur liberal wrath; sign it, and conservatives will portray him as a wimp if he winds up on the Democratic ticket in 2008.

We tend to think New Mexico’s longstanding policy on capital punishment is a sound one: Keep it on the books, but don’t apply it. That keeps convicted murderers around in case something comes up to prove them innocent — and tightly locked away in case they’re not. The governor’s current stance is in support of the death penalty, as long as there are strict standards to keep anyone innocent from being executed.

With today’s DNA testing and other technological advances in criminal-evidence verification, guilt or innocence becomes a bit clearer. But on off-chance that the wrong person might be given a lethal injection , New Mexico has done well by putting capital criminals on Death Row, then ... doing nothing. Only the vile Terry Clark, killer of a 9-year-old girl, has been executed in recent years — and he asked for it, literally.

So Gov. Richardson’s position puts him in the best of both political worlds: tough on crime, yet reasonable enough not to hasten anyone’s execution.

But we part company with the political experts at the assumption that signing a death-penalty ban would be bad for Bill’s presidential or vice-presidential ambitions.

By coming down against capital punishment, he’d help his cause with liberals in the crucial campaign for the 2008 nomination. And as for being seen as soft on crime by right-wingers , well, there are plenty of them who wouldn’t vote for Richardson or any other Democrat — for any number of reasons.

But to a certain number of conservatives, and moderates , Richardson might look very good indeed:

A tax-reforming , business-accommodating politician with the common sense it will take to get us out of the economic mess President Bush probably will make worse in the next three years. A skilled diplomat our nation will really need by then, to retrieve lost alliances amid what could be even greater global crises. A political charmer capable of crossing our country’s hardening lines of cultural diversity. The death penalty, we’re pretty sure, will not be much of a factor in 2008. So our governor should rest easy on that score — and consider the friendships he might cement along the road to the nomination. Far from fretting about the repeal of capital punishment , he should consider pressing the Senate to send him such a bill — and signing it.

NM Coalition to Repeal the Death Penalty
www.nmrepeal.org
(505) 986-9536