Governor Bill Richardson signed House Bill 285, repealing the death penalty in the state of New Mexico. The following is a statement from Governor Richardson:

Today marks the end of a long, personal journey for me and the issue of the death penalty.

Throughout my adult life, I have been a firm believer in the death penalty as a just punishment – in very rare instances, and only for the most heinous crimes. I still believe that.

But six years ago, when I took office as Governor of the State of New Mexico, I started to challenge my own thinking on the death penalty.

The issue became more real to me because I knew the day would come when one of two things might happen: I would either have to take action on legislation to repeal the death penalty, or more daunting, I might have to sign someone’s death warrant.

I’ll be honest. The prospect of either decision was extremely troubling. But I was elected by the people of New Mexico to make just this type of decision.

So, like many of the supporters who took the time to meet with me this week, I have believed the death penalty can serve as a deterrent to some who might consider murdering a law enforcement officer, a corrections officer, a witness to a crime or kidnapping and murdering a child. However, people continue to commit terrible crimes even in the face of the death penalty and responsible people on both sides of the debate disagree – strongly – on this issue.

But what we cannot disagree on is the finality of this ultimate punishment. Once a conclusive decision has been made and executed, it cannot be reversed. And it is in consideration of this, that I have made my decision.

I have decided to sign legislation that repeals the death penalty in the state of New Mexico.

Regardless of my personal opinion about the death penalty, I do not have confidence in the criminal justice system as it currently operates to be the final arbiter when it comes to who lives and who dies for their crime. If the State is going to undertake this awesome responsibility, the system to impose this ultimate penalty must be perfect and can never be wrong.

But the reality is the system is not perfect – far from it. The system is inherently defective. DNA testing has proven that. Innocent people have been put on death row all across the country.

Even with advances in DNA and other forensic evidence technologies, we can’t be 100-percent sure that only the truly guilty are convicted of capital crimes. Evidence, including DNA evidence, can be manipulated. Prosecutors can still abuse their powers. We cannot ensure competent defense counsel for all defendants. The sad truth is the wrong person can still be convicted in this day and age, and in cases where that conviction carries with it the ultimate sanction, we must have ultimate confidence – I would say certitude – that the system is without flaw or prejudice. Unfortunately, this is demonstrably not the case.

And it bothers me greatly that minorities are overrepresented in the prison population and on death row.

I have to say that all of the law enforcement officers, and especially the parents and spouses of murder victims, made compelling arguments to keep the death penalty. I respect their opinions and have taken their experiences to heart — which is why I struggled – even today – before making my final decision.

Yes, the death penalty is a tool for law enforcement. But it’s not the only tool. For some would-be criminals, the death penalty may be a deterrent. But it’s not, and never will be, for many, many others.

While today’s focus will be on the repeal of the death penalty, I want to make clear that this bill I’m signing actually makes New Mexico safer. With my signature, we now have the option of sentencing the worst criminals to life in prison without the possibility of parole. They will never get out of prison.

Faced with the reality that our system for imposing the death penalty can never be perfect, my conscience compels me to replace the death penalty with a solution that keeps society safe.

The bill I am signing today, which was courageously carried for so many years by Representative Gail Chasey, replaces the death penalty with true life without the possibility of parole – a sentence that ensures violent criminals are locked away from society forever, yet can be undone if an innocent person is wrongfully convicted. More than 130 death row inmates have been exonerated in the past 10 years in this country, including four New Mexicans – a fact I cannot ignore.

From an international human rights perspective, there is no reason the United States should be behind the rest of the world on this issue. Many of the countries that continue to support and use the death penalty are also the most repressive nations in the world. That’s not something to be proud of.

In a society which values individual life and liberty above all else, where justice and not vengeance is the singular guiding principle of our system of criminal law, the potential for wrongful conviction and, God forbid, execution of an innocent person stands as anathema to our very sensibilities as human beings. That is why I’m signing this bill into law.

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In last week’s Nashville Scene, the cover story focused on the case of Steve Henley, a Tennessee death row inmate executed in February 2009. As most of you who regularly read this blog already know, I visited Steve for the past 10 years, and over those years, he became like a brother to me. When I first began visiting him, I was a young minister working in a local church and was not serving TCASK in my current position. As his execution approached, I struggled in dealing with Steve’s execution as both his spiritual advisor and as the Executive Director of TCASK. Playing both roles was very difficult, and I continue to deal with my own personal grief and the grief of his family in the aftermath of the execution.

When I saw the article in the Scene, the title unnerved me, “Manburner.” I was eating lunch with a friend with whom I was sharing about my experience of the execution when she said, “Hey, did you see the Scene?” My emotions were already heightened so the title really hit me in the gut.

As I read the story, I appreciated that the writer, Brantley Hargrove, introduced readers to Steve Henley the man, hardworking farmer, and father, who was was doing his best to maintain his grandpa’s farm and provide for his kids. At his best, that is who Steve was. As I continued reading, the circumstances and theories about the tragic and horrible murders of the Staffords were detailed, all of which I had read before in the trial transcripts. The circumstantial evidence presented was damning.

But there were things left out of the story, things like the fact that Steve talked to a guy about a truck driving job only 10 minutes after the crime, that the Henley family is still unclear as to what the “feud” between these families was about, that Steve was not even involved personally in the car accident with the Staffords which was used as part of the motive for what happened, though the vehicle he shared with Buck Anderson was.

I also appreciated that Brantley laid out the facts about the sloppy investigation of the crime–like a relatively shiny shell casing from Steve’s rifle discovered in the ashes of the Staffords’ home only after the rifle was discovered (the rifle that Flatt told officials where to find). If one reads the trial transcripts about the investigation, the number of problems is unsettling .

But, I admit that the Scene article was also very hard for me to read because attempting to reconcile the person who killed those elderly people as possibly being the same person that I knew and loved for 10 years is not easy. At the same time, I recognize that I wasn’t there and did not know Steve Henley or Terry Flatt in 1985 when their lives were spiraling out of control. And, that all of us, whether we want to admit it or not, are capable of some pretty awful things given our circumstances and state of mind–this is not an excuse but a reality. And at the end of the day, as Sister Helen Prejean states, “There is more to every person than the worst thing he or she has ever done.” Thanks be to God.

And still, for me, the death penalty really isn’t about the people who commit these awful crimes. Once we as a society get to the point of an execution, the people we execute are already in prison, being held accountable for their actions. So the act of execution then really becomes about us as a people, and how we choose to act. Do we behave in the same manner that the convicted chose to or do we respond differently? For me, as a Christian, I have to ask, “Do I choose to allow the one who murdered dictate my actions or do I choose to look to the example of Jesus Christ and allow him to dictate my actions?”

So while Steve’s guilt or innocence does not change my feelings one way or the other concerning the death penalty, I struggle with truly understanding the person I knew and loved in Steve. All along I was very clear with him that his guilt or innocence changed nothing concerning how I felt about him or whether we would remain friends. I wanted him to reach a place where he could acknowledge his part in what had happened, if he, in fact, killed the Staffords or participated in the murder with Flatt. But for 23 years and until the end, Steve was adamant about his innocence, and he needed for me to believe him when so few others did.

So I am left with the memories of my friend, remaining questions about what really happened, and the reality of a system that sanctioned and pursued his death. None of us will ever know what happened that evening in July 1985. What I do know is that two men were arrested for these brutal murders. One implicated himself, made a deal, and served only 5 years. The other was executed. The question remains, “Is this the kind of justice we want?”

Read the Scene article here

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60 Minutes aired a great story on last night’s show concerning the increasing problems related to the reliability of eyewitness testimony. Leslie Stahl interviewed Jennifer Thompson and Ronald Cotton, both of North Carolina, whose lives are forever connected by Thompson’s misidentification of Cotton as her rapist. After serving eleven years in prison, DNA evidence finally exonerated Cotton and identified the real rapist, a man already in prison but who had tragically raped more women before he was finally caught.

Stahl tells viewers that of the approximately 230 DNA exonerations in this country in recent years, 75% of them were falsely identified by an eyewitness. She explores how susceptible memory is to suggestion and demonstrates how easy it is for our memories to be wrong.

When Barry Scheck testified to the Tennessee Death Penalty Study Committee, he spent a good deal of time discussing the issue of false eyewitness identification. Clark McMillan, whose innocence was proven through DNA testing, was wrongfully convicted in Tennessee largely due to mistaken identification. Scheck encouraged the Committee to look into the reforms on eyewitness id procedures, supported by 25 years of research, called for by leading experts. Many of these reforms have been enacted in states like New Jersey, North Carolina, West Virginia and Wisconsin. Unfortunately, no law is currently in place in Tennessee that guides law enforcement to use scientifically supported procedures shown to reduce such mistaken identifications.

Watch 60 Minutes here.

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On February 19, the Tennessee Committee to Study the Administration of the Death Penalty met for the final time. Along with the legislative recommendations on which it had already decided, the Committee voted 12-2 to issue a report highlighting the issues it covered and summaries of the testimony received.

Sadly, the two votes against this final report came from the Attorney Generals representative, Elizabeth Ryan, and the District Attorneys’ representative, Al Schmutzer. In fact, Ms. Ryan first objected to the Committee’s legitimacy in even meeting to discuss a report, claiming that the Committee officially ceased to exist in December 2008. After Senator Jackson explained that the Clerk of the Senate was clear that such a meeting to finalize a report is a common occurrence for study committees and that the Committee was well within its rights to meet, she then insisted that any report issued by this Committee consist of only the language of the five or so recommendations voted on by Committee in earlier meetings. In other words, she objected to any written record of the testimony received over the 14 months of the Committee’s work.

And, frankly, if I was Ms. Ryan, I would object as well. For Ms. Ryan and the AG who are charged with supporting this broken system, the inclusion of such testimony is a real problem since almost no testimony received in 14 months supports the fairness or accuracy of Tennessee’s current system. In fact, as someone who attended every Committee meeting and all but one subcommittee meeting, I heard absolutely NOTHING which indicates a system that works. Even those who support the death penalty acknowledged the issues of excessive costs, delays, and lack of adequate defense for those on trial for capital murder. The real disagreement among Committee members was not the fact that grave problems exist but how to address those problems. And, from the DA and AG reps, maintaining the status quo in some form continued to be the most common suggestion.

Though the Committee did not address a number of issues, the issues which were covered revealed a system which is not only unfair but does risk the execution of an innocent person. And of course, as I sat there listening to the discussion on Thursday, my eyes welled up on several occasions because I couldn’t help but think of Steve Henley, for whom this report comes too late. I got very emotional again as I thought of Steve’s lack of adequate defense at his trial, the fact that Steve did not have the resources to pay for a qualified lawyer, the fact that Steve’s death sentence was secured based on the testimony of a drug addict co-defendant who had implicated himself and made a deal, the fact that even as he lay strapped to a gurney about to endure a protocol which has not yet been found to be constitutional by the 6th Circuit, he maintained his innocence. These facts haunt me and will haunt me for the rest of my life. How could we execute Steve Henley under such circumstances?

Charles Strobel, Committee member representing Murder Victims’ Families for Human Rights, wrote an editorial which appeared in Monday’s Tennessean stating why this state needs a moratorium on executions until these issues of fairness and accuracy can be addressed. Such a moratorium comes too late for Steve, but not for the other 87 people on Tennessee’s death row and for the citizens of this state who are concerned about fairness and justice.

I heard from Steve’s family yesterday about how upset they are to learn about this Committee’s findings now, given what just happened to Steve. How do you explain to a traumatized family that the state didn’t see fit to give your son, your daddy, your brother, 30 more days of life in order to hear what this Committee had to say but instead executed him just two weeks before the Committee issued its findings?

Now, the legislature must act on the recommendations of this Committee if Tennesseans are to have any confidence that the lawmakers are even attempting to remedy the problems. If not, justice cannot and will not occur in Tennessee–not for victims’ families who cannot be sure that the right person is held accountable for the murder of their loved one nor for defendants whose lives are on the line.

Read Charles Strobel’s editorial here.

Fairly, there are numerous aspects you would like to think about medications. All discount medicaments save money, but few online drugstores offer better deals than other online drugstores. There isn’t anything you can’t order online anymore. Remedies like Deltasone ordinarily is used to treat diseases such as eye problems. Glucocorticoids naturally occurring steroids, which are easily absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract. There are varied drugs for every conditions. Cialis is a remedy prescribed to treat many illnesses. What do you already know about long term side effects of cialis? What consumers talk about how long does it take for cialis to take effect? A general sexual complaint among men is the erectile disfunction. Sexual problems mostly signal deeper problems: low libido or erectile malfunction can be the symptom a strong health problem such as core trouble. Albeit the erectile dysfunction itself isn’t necessarily dangerous, erectile dysfunction is sometimes one of the early warning symptoms of other underlying heartiness conditions that can be very much dangerous. Unfortunately nearly all over-the-counter medicines have sometimes dangerous aftereffects, from muscle aches to death. If you buy any erectile dysfunction medicaments like Cialis, check with a physician that they are sure to take with your other drugs. Do not take unwanted medications. Take Cialis to your local chemist’s shop which will dispose of them for you.