Death Penalty Repealed in New Mexico

Lethal InjectionWhether it’s because Kevin Spacey moved you in The Life of David Gale or it’s because most of the developed world doesn’t use murder as a form of punishment, you may be against the death penalty. And you wouldn’t be alone. The number of countries that have outlawed is nearly double to those who use it, and more and more states are establishing moratoriums after many convicted people on death row—some who were even executed—were found to be innocent.

In fact, 113 people have been found innocent in the past 35 years—which is about an error of one in eight people. It has also been found that, after being convicted, 82% of death row inmates did not even deserve the punishment at all, either having not committed the crime they were convicted of at all, or having played a much smaller role in it.

Some states are even outlawing it altogether. New Mexico  joined New Jersey on the roster of states where the death penalty is illegal this year. Governor Bill Richardson said, “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.”

Currently, 15 states do not actively use the death penalty. Other states, including Montana, Colorado, and Maryland, are considering moratoriums or at least limitations on the use of the death penalty.

Democratic Senator Russ Feingold has been trying to outlaw it nationally, saying, “I oppose the death penalty because it is inconsistent with basic American principles of justice, liberty, and equality... It is truly unfortunate that we are in a shrinking minority of countries that continue to allow state-sponsored executions."  

The issue isn’t even completely about the number of errors made in it—after all, who are mere humans to deem who dies and who lives? It can’t really be about morality, either, as so many “pro-lifers” oddly support the death penalty. It’s about ethics. Killing someone who kills someone to show that killing is wrong is toddler logic; certainly not fit for law. And as long as we condone killing in the name of whatever we see fit at the moment—land, religion, freedom, oil, whatever—who are we to give out death warrants?

Until all states—especially Texas, which accounts for about half the country’s executions each year—follow Richardson’s lead and abolish the death penalty, neither true justice nor peace will be able to exist in this country. With a clearly “cruel and unusual” punishment deemed legal within America, neither will democracy.