The death penalty is barbaric
I write today with a heavy heart that this letter even needs to be penned. The death penalty is a barbaric, nonsensical approach to combating crime, mental health and criminality across New Mexico (“GOP aims to bring back death penalty,” Jan. 8).
While there might be some polls that show a majority of New Mexicans approve of a narrow reintroduction of the “ultimate” punishment for certain crimes, any bill that seeks to reintroduce this cruel penalty is filled with fallacious elements that seek to not only disenfranchise members of society, but more importantly hold certain lives in higher esteem than others.
The death penalty across the United States has been widely seen as a scourge, something that even prosecutors have described as flawed and as a non-deterrent. Repealed statewide in 2009, New Mexico courts only carried out this punishment on one person since 1976. One person.
While I would never defend the barbaric acts that certain individuals have committed, a definitive sentence of death is misinformed and will do nothing to prevent violent crime, and is merely an attempt to deflect from the real problems New Mexicans face with criminal activity.
To my second point, this bill values certain lives above others. We have all reeled from the stories of children,
young boys and girls who should be enjoying their youth have instead been the victims of brutal assaults and murder at the hands of criminals. Yet, to act with passion instead of reason, knowing the long and torrid history of the death penalty in New Mexico, is a mistake. We can hold criminals accountable without the threat of death.
According to Time magazine, approximately 4.1 percent of death penalty convictions are erroneous, more than double what was previously estimated. While one innocent life lost is too many, so too is an innocent victim of our courts.
We deserve better than a reintroduction of a barbaric law that holds certain lives in higher esteem than others, and we are smarter than this bill that will surely put innocent lives at risk at the sake of selfish political gains.
James W. Ross is former deputy Cabinet secretary of health and federal affairs director for Gov. Susana Martinez, and is currently living in Illinois.