The state of New Mexico agreed to drop its pur­suit of the death penal­ty against two defen­dants because the state leg­is­la­ture did not pro­vide the mon­ey nec­es­sary for ade­quate rep­re­sen­ta­tion of the defen­dants, who were accused of killing a prison guard. The tri­al of Reis Lopez and Robert Young will pro­ceed as a non-cap­i­tal mur­der pros­e­cu­tion. The pros­e­cu­tion’s deci­sion was spurred by the tri­al court’s rul­ing bar­ring the seek­ing of the death penal­ty because the leg­is­la­ture had adjourned with­out suf­fi­cient­ly fund­ing the cap­i­tal defense sys­tem. The state leg­is­la­ture fin­ished its ses­sion in February and will not return until January 2009. A pre­vi­ous rul­ing had said the state leg­is­la­ture should allo­cate anoth­er $200,000 to the defense office after attor­neys for the defen­dants com­plained about lack of mon­ey to meet their fees.

​“There was no one in the leg­is­la­ture… to spon­sor a bill to that effect,” Gail Chasey, a New Mexico law­mak­er, explained. ​“We have declin­ing rev­enues and have to bal­ance our bud­get.”

She added that the law­mak­ers were ​“relieved” that they could go off until next year with­out hav­ing to deal with this ​“big tick­et item”. New Mexico came close to abol­ish­ing the death penal­ty in 2005 and 2007.


The wid­ow of the vic­tim in the case had also asked the state not to pur­sue the death penal­ty.
(Adrianne Appel, ​“Court Says, ​‘Pay Up — Or Let Live!’ ” IPS News Service, April 28, 2008). See Costs and Representation.

Citation Guide