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Can and will New Mexico go forward with executions even after its death penalty repeal?

By Douglas A. Berman

I am pretty sure that New Jersey's legislative repeal of its death penalty included a provision for commuting the sentences for those Garden State defendants already sent to death row.  But, according to this local article, folks in New Mexico are talking about still carrying out previously-imposed death sentences despite the abolition of capital punishment there: Gov. Bill Richardson may have signed into law a repeal of the death penalty, but that doesn?t mean the two men on New Mexico?s death row will see their sentences converted to life without parole. Richardson told news reporters Wednesday during a news conference,?I will not commute their sentences.? ?Those are past legal issues. In fact, they would probably get off easier with life imprisonment,? Richardson added...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on March 19, 2009 (boomark / email).