SANTA FE — Governor Bill Richardson today signed House Bill 285, Repeal of the Death Penalty. The Governor’s remarks fol­low:

Today marks the end of a long, per­son­al jour­ney for me and the issue of the death penal­ty.

Throughout my adult life, I have been a firm believ­er in the death penal­ty as a just pun­ish­ment — in very rare instances, and only for the most heinous
crimes. I still believe that.

But six years ago, when I took office as Governor of the State of New Mexico, I start­ed to chal­lenge my own think­ing on the death penal­ty.

The issue became more real to me because I knew the day would come when one of two things might hap­pen: I would either have to take action on leg­is­la­tion to repeal the death penal­ty, or more daunt­ing, I might have to sign some­one’s death war­rant.

I’ll be hon­est. The prospect of either deci­sion was extreme­ly trou­bling. But I was elect­ed by the peo­ple of New Mexico to make just this type of deci­sion.

So, like many of the sup­port­ers who took the time to meet with me this week, I have believed the death penal­ty can serve as a deter­rent to some who might con­sid­er mur­der­ing a law enforce­ment offi­cer, a cor­rec­tions offi­cer, a wit­ness to a crime or kid­nap­ping and mur­der­ing a child. However, peo­ple con­tin­ue to com­mit ter­ri­ble crimes even in the face of the death penal­ty and respon­si­ble peo­ple on both sides of the debate dis­agree — strong­ly — on this issue.

But what we can­not dis­agree on is the final­i­ty of this ulti­mate pun­ish­ment. Once a con­clu­sive deci­sion has been made and exe­cut­ed, it can­not be reversed. And it is in con­sid­er­a­tion of this, that I have made my deci­sion.

I have decid­ed to sign leg­is­la­tion that repeals the death penal­ty in the state of New Mexico.

Regardless of my per­son­al opin­ion about the death penal­ty, I do not have con­fi­dence in the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem as it cur­rent­ly oper­ates to be the
final arbiter when it comes to who lives and who dies for their crime. If the State is going to under­take this awe­some respon­si­bil­i­ty, the sys­tem to impose
this ulti­mate penal­ty must be per­fect and can nev­er be wrong.

But the real­i­ty is the sys­tem is not per­fect — far from it. The sys­tem is inher­ent­ly defec­tive. DNA test­ing has proven that. Innocent peo­ple have been
put on death row all across the coun­try.

Even with advances in DNA and oth­er foren­sic evi­dence tech­nolo­gies, we can’t be 100-per­cent sure that only the tru­ly guilty are con­vict­ed of cap­i­tal
crimes. Evidence, includ­ing DNA evi­dence, can be manip­u­lat­ed. Prosecutors can still abuse their pow­ers. We can­not ensure com­pe­tent defense coun­sel for all defen­dants. The sad truth is the wrong per­son can still be con­vict­ed in this day and age, and in cas­es where that con­vic­tion car­ries with it the ulti­mate sanc­tion, we must have ulti­mate con­fi­dence — I would say cer­ti­tude — that the sys­tem is with­out flaw or prej­u­dice. Unfortunately, this is demon­stra­bly not the case.

And it both­ers me great­ly that minori­ties are over­rep­re­sent­ed in the prison pop­u­la­tion and on death row.

I have to say that all of the law enforce­ment offi­cers, and espe­cial­ly the par­ents and spous­es of mur­der vic­tims, made com­pelling argu­ments to keep the
death penal­ty. I respect their opin­ions and have tak­en their expe­ri­ences to heart — which is why I strug­gled — even today — before mak­ing my final
deci­sion.

Yes, the death penal­ty is a tool for law enforce­ment. But it’s not the only tool. For some would-be crim­i­nals, the death penal­ty may be a deter­rent. But
it’s not, and nev­er will be, for many, many oth­ers.

While today’s focus will be on the repeal of the death penal­ty, I want to make clear that this bill I’m sign­ing actu­al­ly makes New Mexico safer. With my
sig­na­ture, we now have the option of sen­tenc­ing the worst crim­i­nals to life in prison with­out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole. They will nev­er get out of prison.

Faced with the real­i­ty that our sys­tem for impos­ing the death penal­ty can nev­er be per­fect, my con­science com­pels me to replace the death penal­ty with a solu­tion that keeps soci­ety safe.

The bill I am sign­ing today, which was coura­geous­ly car­ried for so many years by Representative Gail Chasey, replaces the death penal­ty with true life
with­out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole — a sen­tence that ensures vio­lent crim­i­nals are locked away from soci­ety for­ev­er, yet can be undone if an inno­cent per­son
is wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed. More than 130 death row inmates have been exon­er­at­ed in the past 10 years in this coun­try, includ­ing four New Mexicans — a fact I can­not ignore.

From an inter­na­tion­al human rights per­spec­tive, there is no rea­son the United States should be behind the rest of the world on this issue. Many of the
coun­tries that con­tin­ue to sup­port and use the death penal­ty are also the most repres­sive nations in the world. That’s not some­thing to be proud of.

In a soci­ety which val­ues indi­vid­ual life and lib­er­ty above all else, where jus­tice and not vengeance is the sin­gu­lar guid­ing prin­ci­ple of our sys­tem of
crim­i­nal law, the poten­tial for wrong­ful con­vic­tion and, God for­bid, exe­cu­tion of an inno­cent per­son stands as anath­e­ma to our very sen­si­bil­i­ties as human beings. That is why I’m sign­ing this bill into law.