A bill to abolish the death penalty passed 6-5 the...

A bill to abolish the death penalty passed 6-5 the House Judiciary Committee on February 24. Rep. Gail Beam, D-Albuquerque, the bill's sponsor, told the committee that more resources should be directed to prevention of violent crime and to assist victims rather than to prosecute death penalty cases. "The death penalty is applied unequally," Beam added. "People who are poor and people of color are more apt to be sentenced to death in this country." But the bill was defeated by another committee and lost in the Senate by a vote of 22-10 on March 11. The Senate bill was sponsored by Senate President Pro Tem Manny Aragon, D-Albuquerque. Aragon proposed replacing the death penalty with a life sentence with no chance of parole. "We're the only country, along with Cuba and Iraq, to permit the death penalty," Aragon said. "That's not very good company." Aragon said more than 320 people have been convicted wrongfully and sentenced to death in the United States. "And some 20 or 30 have been put to death," he said. New Mexico's three Roman Catholic bishops and a dozen religious and civic leaders supported the bill, which was the first considered by the legislature since 1983. Bills to establish a racial justice act, to shorten the appeals process, and to expand the aggravating circumstances for which a death sentence could be imposed, were defeated.