Members of New Mexico’s House of Representatives have passed a bill to abolish the death penalty, marking the first time that either chamber of the state’s legislature has passed such a measure. Representative Gail Beam, who has sponsored the abolition bill every two years since she was elected in 1996, noted that the vote was “a historic opportunity for New Mexico to take a step that’s both thoughtful and practical and to join other industrialized democracies in replacing the death penalty with a sentence of life without parole.” Supporters of the measure anticipate a close vote in the Senate, where the bill must first be reviewed by the Senate Public Affairs Committee. Some Senators have called for passage of the legislation due to concerns about innocence and the fact that capital punishment fails to deter violent crime. “Lately I’ve been looking at all these cases where people have been sentenced to death, and with DNA and other things, they found out all these mistakes. That doesn’t make any sense,” said Senator Phil Griego, a former death penalty supporter who has announced he will vote for the Senate version of Beam’s bill. The last time a death penalty bill reached the floor of either chamber was in 2001, when the Senate narrowly defeated an abolition bill by a vote of 21 to 20.

(The New Mexican, March 1, 2005). See Innocence. UPDATE: A senate committee has blocked consideration of the abolition bill, making passage of the bill this year doubtful.