USA - New Mexico. House panel OK's death penalty reinstatement.

House panel OK's death penalty reinstatement. A bill to reinstate the death penalty that is sought by Gov. Susana Martinez squeaked through the House Judiciary Committee on a 7-6 vote late Friday, with Republicans voting in favor and Democrats opposed. But with the Senate already having adjourned the special session - and senators headed home - after approving a package of budget fixes, work on the crime measure could be an empty effort. Democrats had opposed the governor's putting crime bills on the agenda for the short special session. Critics said the death penalty bill was a flawed, ill-conceived piece of legislation whose sole purpose was political: fodder for the GOP in the legislative campaigns ahead of the Nov. 8 general election. "The committee should be ashamed to do this," House Minority Leader Brian Egolf, D-Santa Fe, told fellow members of the House Judiciary Committee who were meeting close to midnight with only a handful of onlookers. The death penalty bill was headed next to the House Appropriations Committee. The death penalty legislation would reinstate capital punishment for killers of police officers, correctional officers and children under 18. The proponents of House Bill 7 pointed out that 5 police officers in New Mexico have been killed in 18 months, and impassioned family members of victims pleaded with lawmakers to endorse the legislation. New Mexico abolished the death penalty in 2009 after more than a decade of discussion, and the bill's opponents said it was irresponsible to revisit the issue in a brief legislative session with little public input.