Governor unveils tough-on-crime push
As her last session as the state’s leader approaches, Susana Martinez revives death penalty talks
ALBUQUERQUE — Gov. Susana Martinez is making a final push for lawmakers to pass a series of tough-on-crime bills in her last year in office, including measures to expand the state’s three-strikes law for violent felons and restore the death penalty.
Martinez, a Republican, unveiled the legislation Monday ahead of the 30-day session that begins next week in Santa Fe. Her proposals include a bill to toughen penalties for people who commit crimes while on probation or parole, as well as the capital punishment and three-strikes measures — which have both been rejected in recent years by lawmakers.
Democratic lawmakers, who now hold majorities in both the House and Senate, have in the past noted that the governor’s public safety agenda has been reminiscent of a wave of 1990s anti-crime laws that some other states have reversed in recent years. She has cited a crime wave in Albuquerque, the state’s largest city, and her decades as a prosecutor prior to becoming governor in arguing for harsher penalties for violent and repeat offenders.
“Every year since taking office, I’ve pushed lawmakers to get tough on crime because I’ve seen the consequences of not being tough on crime,” Martinez said.
The capital punishment legislation would restore the death penalty for people convicted of murdering children, law enforcement officers and corrections officers, she said. The three-strikes proposal would require life sentences
for repeat offenders convicted of a third violent felony.
Martinez said she also is backing some new proposals, including the bill to crack down on offenders who commit crimes while on probation or parole, or those released on court supervision while awaiting trial.
At a news conference Monday, she did not outline in detail a strategy for passing legislation that has failed to become law in recent years, saying only that she hoped lawmakers were listening to the public and taking note of crime rates. House Speaker Brian Egolf, a Democrat from Santa Fe, did not immediately respond to an Associated Press request for comment on Monday.
FBI statistics show Albuquerque saw a 16 percent jump in violent crime between 2015 and 2016. In 2016, the city had a violent crime rate of 1,112 incidents per 100,000 residents.
Martinez’s second term as governor ends in December.