A study by attor­ney Marcia Wilson was recent­ly pub­lished in the New Mexico Law Review: ​“The Application of the Death Penalty in New Mexico, July 1979 through December 2007: An Empirical Analysis.” Wilson’s research reveals new infor­ma­tion on how the death penal­ty was applied in New Mexico after its rein­state­ment. The arti­cle was pub­lished before New Mexico repealed the death penal­ty in March 2009, and served as valu­able infor­ma­tion dur­ing the leg­isla­tive debate. Wilson con­clud­ed, ​“The num­bers and per­cent­ages here sug­gest that the impo­si­tion of the death penal­ty in New Mexico is still influ­enced by legal­ly irrel­e­vant issues such as where or when the crime was com­mit­ted and the race or eth­nic­i­ty of the vic­tim and the defendant.” 

Between 1979 through 2007 in New Mexico:

  • 211 death penal­ty cases filed
  • 203 were resolved by the end of 2007
  • 9 cas­es were dis­missed before trial
  • 47.8% of the resolved cas­es end­ed with a plea bar­gain and a sen­tence less than death
  • 46.9% of the resolved cas­es went to trial
  • 25% of the resolved cas­es had a penalty trial
  • 15 peo­ple were sen­tened to death
  • 2 defen­dants remained on death row still chal­leng­ing their death sentence
  • 1 defen­dant was exe­cut­ed (after drop­ping his appeals).

(M. Wilson, ​“The Application of the Death Penalty in New Mexico, July 1979 through December 2007: An Empirical Analysis,” 38 New Mexico Law Review 255 (2008)). See Recent Legislative Activity, Studies, and Arbitrariness.

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