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    • DPI Reports Dec 19, 2024 The Death Penalty in 2024 Death Sentences and Executions Remain Near Historic Lows Amid Growing Concerns about Fairness and Innocence
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State & Federal

New Mexico

Famous Cases

Santa Rosa prison riots: Ralph Garcia, a cor­rec­tion­al offi­cer, was killed dur­ing a prison riot in 1999. Thirteen men were charged in the mur­der, but eleven of those cas­es were resolved through plea deals. Robert Young and Reis Lopez were charged with cap­i­tal mur­der, but the New Mexico Supreme Court sus­pend­ed pro­ceed­ings because the state has not pro­vid­ed suf­fi­cient funds for their defense. The cas­es con­tin­ued when pros­e­cu­tors stopped seek­ing the death penal­ty. Lopez plead­ed guilty to sec­ond-degree mur­der and was sen­tenced to 29 years in prison. Young was con­vict­ed of felony mur­der and sen­tenced to life in prison.

Notable Exonerations

The Vagos Bikers case: Four men were arrest­ed and charged in 1974 for the kid­nap­ping, mur­der and rape of a University of New Mexico stu­dent, William Velten. They were released in 1975 after the real murderer confessed.

Milestones in Abolition/​Reinstatement

In 1986, Governor Toney Anaya com­mut­ed the death sen­tences of all five men on New Mexico’s death row.

In 2009, New Mexico became the 15th state to abol­ish the death penal­ty. The bill applied only prospec­tive­ly, leav­ing two men on death row. On June 28, 2019, the New Mexico Supreme Court vacat­ed their death sen­tences and ordered that they be resen­tenced to life in prison.

New Mexico ​“Firsts”

New Mexico has exclud­ed juve­niles from exe­cu­tion since 1975, mak­ing it one of the first states to do so.

Other Interesting Facts

New Mexico was the last state to adopt a sen­tence of life with­out parole, in 2009.

View of the Sandia Mountains from Bernalillo. Photo by Viki Elkey.

Resources

  • New Mexico Coalition to Repeal the Death Penalty
  • New Mexico Corrections Department
  • New Mexico District Attorneys Association
  • Public defend­er’s office
  • Victims’ ser­vices

New Mexico Execution Totals Since 1976


News & Developments


News

Mar 19, 2024

The 15th Anniversary of Death Penalty Repeal in New Mexico: Conversation with Cathy Ansheles and Viki Harrison

This week marks the 15th anniver­sary of the repeal of the death penal­ty in New Mexico. On March 18th, 2009, Governor Bill Richardson signed the repeal act (HB2085), end­ing the death penal­ty in the state. The bill came into force on July 1st, 2009. New Mexico fol­lowed New Jersey to become the sec­ond state in the 21st Century to end cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment through legislative…

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News

Dec 23, 2019

DPIC Analysis: Death Penalty Erosion Spreads Across the Western United States in 2019

In a year of declin­ing death-penal­­ty usage across the United States, nowhere was the ero­sion of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment as sus­tained and pro­nounced in 2019 as it was in the west­ern United States. Continuing a wave of momen­tum from Washington​’s judi­cial abo­li­tion of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in October 2018, one state halt­ed exe­cu­tions and dis­man­tled its death cham­ber, anoth­er cleared its death row, two cut back on the cir­cum­stances in which the death penalty…

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News

Jul 02, 2019

New Mexico Supreme Court Ruling Removes Final Prisoners from State’s Death Row

The New Mexico Supreme Court has cleared the state’s death row, vacat­ing the death sen­tences imposed on the state’s final two death-row pris­on­ers, and direct­ing that they be resen­tenced to life in prison. The rul­ings, issued by a divid­ed court on June 28, 2019 in the cas­es of Timothy Allen (pic­tured, left) and Robert Fry (pic­tured, right), came almost ten years to the day after New Mexico’s death-penal­­ty abo­li­tion, signed into…

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News

Nov 28, 2018

Two Cases Pit Native American Sovereignty Against U.S. Death Penalty

As fed­er­al pros­e­cu­tors dropped the death penal­ty against a Navajo man accused of killing a police offi­cer on Navajo land, the U.S. Supreme Court heard argu­ment in a sep­a­rate case on the sta­tus of a treaty estab­lish­ing the bor­ders of the Creek Nation reser­va­tion that could deter­mine whether Oklahoma has juris­dic­tion to car­ry out the death penal­ty against a cit­i­zen of the Muscogee (Creek) tribe. The two cases highlight…

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News

Apr 11, 2018

New Mexico Supreme Court Hears Argument on Whether State May Execute Last Two Men on Its Death Row

Nine years after New Mexico prospec­tive­ly abol­ished cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, lawyers for the state’s two remain­ing death-row pris­on­ers argued to the New Mexico Supreme Court that the death penal­ty was uncon­sti­tu­tion­al­ly dis­pro­por­tion­ate pun­ish­ment as applied to Timothy Allen (pic­tured, left) and Robert Fry (pic­tured, right), and that they should…

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View Information by State

Additional Information


  • Death Penalty: No
  • Number of Executions Since 1976: 1
  • Number of Executions Before 1976 (may include fed­er­al and military executions): 73
  • Number of Innocent People Freed From Death Row: 4
  • Number of Clemencies Granted: 5
  • Date of Reinstatement (fol­low­ing Furman v. Georgia): July 1, 1979
  • Date of Abolition: March 18, 2009, though abo­li­tion was not retroac­tive. The last two death sen­tences in the state were vacat­ed on June 28, 2019.
  • Capital: Santa Fe
  • Region: West
  • Population: 2,117,522*
  • Murder Rate (per 100,000 population): 8.63
  • Is Life Without Parole an Option?: Yes
  • Method of Execution: Injection
  • Clemency Process: Governor has sole author­i­ty to grant clemency
  • Governor: Michelle Lujan Grisham
Upcoming Executions

Upcoming Executions

Information about scheduled executions around the country

Innocence

Innocence

For every 8.2 peo­ple exe­cut­ed in the Unit­ed States in the mod­ern era of the death penal­ty, one per­son on death row has been exon­er­at­ed.

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More Information


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