New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson signed legislation to abolish the state’s death penalty, leaving 35 of the 50 US states still with the option of capital punishment.
Richardson said in a statement on Wednesday that he still believes in the death penalty for the worst crimes, but he has lost confidence in the justice system to administer it.
He said that he decided to sign the repeal because of 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.”
PHOTO: AP
“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,” he said. “I still believe that.”
Richardson briefly ran for president last year before endorsing fellow Democrat Barack Obama. After being elected, Obama nominated Richardson for commerce secretary, but the governor later withdrew over a scandal over state contracts in 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,” Richardson said. “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.”
Meanwhile, a California jury recommended the death penalty on Wednesday for a man convicted of murdering five federal firefighters who were overrun by one of several wildfires he ignited in southern California in 2006.
Jurors took less than a day to decide that Raymond Lee Oyler deserved to die. Prosecutors cited the horrific pain the fire crew suffered and the terror the auto mechanic’s fires caused in rural areas of Riverside County.
Outside court, Maria Loutzenhiser, the wife of slain fire Captain Mark Loutzenhiser, thanked jurors and prosecutors “for putting an end to everybody’s misery and giving everybody peace of mind.”
“I’m grateful they put Oyler in jail and that he’s there and he can’t do this anymore,” she said.
Oyler’s daughter echoed his lawyers’ claim that he never intended to kill anyone.
“That was not in his mind. My dad is not this monster they paint him to be,” 21-year-old Heather Oyler said outside the courtroom.
Oyler, 38, was convicted of five counts of first-degree murder, 20 counts of arson and 17 counts of using an incendiary device. At sentencing, set for June 5, the judge still could give him the punishment the defense had urged jurors to choose: life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The jury foreman, who declined to give his name, said the two-month trial was an emotional ordeal but the evidence showed Oyler’s guilt and helped persuade the panel he should get the death penalty.
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