Rep. Gail Chasey and Marcia Wilson discuss the Death Penalty

Air Dates: September 24-26, 2016

This week's topic on REPORT FROM SANTA FE is the death penalty and the consequences of its reinstatement in New Mexico, with guests Representative Gail Chasey (D-Bernalillo) and Marcia Wilson, attorney, author of "The Application of the Death Penalty in New Mexico,1979-2007." Rep. Chasey championed the efforts to abolish the death penalty in NM in 2009 and replace it with life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

Governor Susana Martinez last month (August 2016) announced that she will renew her push to reinstate capital punishment by the placement of reinstating the death penalty on the agenda for the pending special session to fix the state's budget. New Mexico repealed the death penalty in 2009, before Martinez took office, by replacing provisions for lethal injections with a sentence of life in prison without parole.

Chasey and Wilson discuss the history of the death penalty in NM and the true cost of its reinstatement. These experts point out how expensive death penalty trials are, and how in the state's current fiscal crisis New Mexico can't afford the additional expense.

Representative Gail Chasey (D-Bernalillo) has been in the NM House of Representatives since 1997, serving as the House Judiciary Committee Chair and Chair of the House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee. She has also co-chaired the interim Courts, Corrections, and Justice Committee.

Marcia Wilson practiced as an attorney in New Mexico for over 30 years, serving as staff attorney with the New Mexico Court of Appeals and as Executive Director, Indian Pueblo Legal Services, in Bernalillo, NM. She was a member of the NM State Bar Association's Task Force on the Administration of the Death Penalty from 2000-2004. She authored "The Application of the Death Penalty in New Mexico, July1979-December 2007: An Empirical Analysis” in The New Mexico Law Review.