The Coliseum Lights Up for New Mexico

by Matt Kelley · 2009-04-15 15:14:00 UTC
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A few hours ago, the Roman Coliseum was lit up to celebrate New Mexico’s recent repeal of the death penalty. Gov. Bill Richardson is there, with both of his thumbs and a delegation from New Mexico. New Mexico death penalty repeal activist @vikielkey is tweeting from the festivities.

Meanwhile, just an hour away, the Abruzzo region dug out from the country's deadliest earthquake in nearly three decades. I posted on crime and the earthquake earlier today (it's an Italy edition today, apparently).

So will New Mexico's courageous and common sense decision be a turning point toward the end of the death penalty?

The answer is yes.

Several states are still considering repeal efforts this year, and others made progress but fell just short. There has been  progress in Nebraska, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Montana and  Colorado, and elsewhere. Bills have stalled in Montana and Kansas and Gov. Bill O’Malley signed a law this week in Maryland that didn’t go as far as he wanted, but these states will be back in play again next year.

Sen. Russ Feingold is heading into his second decade backing bills to abolish the federal death penalty – and he’s hoping his persistence has finally found a tipping point. The numbers alone make it so painfully obvious that the death penalty should be repealed. There have been three federal executions since 2003 and we have 57 prisoners on federal death row (56% of them Black or Latino). We spend millions on costly death penalty trials and a lifetime of appeals when we need the money more than ever.

Public opinion is changing and state legislatures are following suit. The economy is speeding things along. New Mexico was the 15th state to abolish the death penalty. Can we hit 20 states in 2010?

Matt Kelley is the Online Communications Manager at the Innocence Project and a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Follow him on Twitter @mattjkelley.
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