Former President Jimmy Carter wrote New Mexico’s Governor Bill Richardson to encour­age him to sup­port a bill repeal­ing the death penal­ty and replac­ing it with life in prison with­out parole. ​“We encour­age your sup­port for this com­pre­hen­sive and vision­ary approach,” Carter wrote. In addi­tion to point­ing out how the extra mon­ey spent on cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment could be bet­ter used else­where, Carter wrote, ​“As you know, the United States is one of the few coun­tries, along with nations such as Saudi Arabia, China, and Cuba, which still car­ry out the death penal­ty despite the ongo­ing tragedy of wrong­ful con­vic­tion and gross racial and class-based dis­par­i­ties that make impos­si­ble the fair imple­men­ta­tion of this ulti­mate pun­ish­ment.”

Gov. Richardson, who has expressed open­ness to the repeal mea­sure, respond­ed through a spokesman, ​“Gov. Richardson has great respect for President Carter and he appre­ci­ates the pres­i­den­t’s views on this issue.” The bill repeal­ing the death penal­ty passed the House and is in a Senate committee.

(D. Baker, ​“Jimmy Carter writes NM Mexico about Death Penalty,” Associated Press, February 25, 2009). See New Voices and Recent Legislation.

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