Martinez to pursue death penalty during 2017 legislative session
Gov. Susana Martinez said Wednesday she will support reinstating the death penalty during the next legislative session, citing recent deadly attacks on law enforcement, including the fatal shooting of a police officer Friday in Southern New Mexico.
“People need to ask themselves, if the man who ambushed and killed five police officers in Dallas had lived, would he deserve the ultimate penalty? How about the heartless violent criminals who killed Officer Jose Chavez in Hatch and left his children without their brave and selfless dad?” Martinez said in a prepared statement, referring to the officer gunned down during a traffic stop last week. “Do they deserve the ultimate penalty? Absolutely.”
A Republican and former prosecutor, Martinez has expressed support in the past for capital punishment, which state lawmakers and Gov. Bill Richardson abolished in 2009. In her first State of the State address in 2011, she said, “When a monster rapes and murders a child or a criminal kills a police officer, the death penalty should be an option for the jury.”
She called on legislators to “repeal the repeal” and reinstate the death penalty — a call that went unheeded.
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