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News From New Mexico

By Steve Hall

Today's Albuquerque Journal has two news articles of interest.  First, Scott Sandlin reports, "Court Adds Jury To Capital Cases."New Mexico repealed the death penalty effective July 1.But for the handful of existing or potential capital cases unaffected by the repeal, including Michael Paul Astorga, the New Mexico Supreme Court has ordered a new way of trying capital cases.Apparently responding to concerns about the fairness of the process raised in a rash of recent briefs in death penalty cases, the court said a defendant may choose to have one jury for the guilt/innocence phase and, if there is a conviction, a separate jury for the penalty phase.New Mexico is the first state in the nation to do so, according a leading death penalty defense attorney...continue to full post

Full post as published by StandDown Texas Project on December 04, 2009 (boomark / email).