SANTA FE – New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez announced Wednesday plans to attempt to reinstate the death penalty in response to recent events including the killing of a police officer.
New Mexico repealed the death penalty in 2009 before Martinez took office by replacing provisions for lethal injection with a sentence of life in prison without parole.
Martinez indicated she will back legislation for capital punishment during the upcoming state legislative session in January.
The second-term Republican governor and former district attorney issued a passionate appeal for justice in the wake of the shooting death of Hatch police Officer Joseph Chavez, saying that a society that fails to “adequately protect and defend those who protect all of us is a society that will be undone and unsafe.”
A statement from the governor also referred to the shootings of five Dallas police officers in July, though the perpetrator there was killed by police with a remote controlled explosive device.
“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?” Martinez said in an email. “How about the heartless violent criminals who killed Officer Jose Chavez in Hatch and left his children without their brave and selfless dad? Do they deserve the ultimate penalty? Absolutely.”
Officer Chavez was gunned down on Friday in Hatch, north of Las Cruces, after pulling over two Ohio murder suspects. First degree murder charges were filed Tuesday against 38-year-old Jesse Hanes in connection with the shooting.
He, along with another man who authorities say was in a vehicle with Hanes when Chavez was shot, are wanted in the July death of a man outside Chillicothe, Ohio.
New Mexico executed nine men from 1933 until it abolished the death penalty. The state’s most recent execution in 2001 was its first since 1960.
Signing off on the abolition of the state’s death penalty, former Gov. Bill Richardson, a Democrat, cited flaws in how it was applied and said the criminal justice system must be perfect if it’s going to put someone to death.
Martinez unsuccessfully backed legislation to reinstate the death penalty shortly after taking office in 2011, when Democrats held a majority in both chambers of the Legislature.
Republicans in 2014 won a majority in the state House of Representatives, while Democrats still control the Senate. The entire Legislature is up for election in November.
On Wednesday, Martinez also said she feels the same way about capital punishment when it comes to people who sexually abuse and murder young children.
