SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) – New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez stepped up pressure on lawmakers Tuesday to consider reinstating the death penalty by promising to add the issue to a legislative agenda for a pending special session that was aimed solely at fixing the state’s budget shortfall.
The second-term Republican governor and former district attorney said that she wants the death penalty as an option for convicted killers of police, children and corrections officers.
New Mexico repealed the death penalty in 2009 before Martinez took office by replacing provisions for lethal injection with a sentence of life in prison without parole.
The move by Martinez seeks a rare reversal even as capital punishment has fallen out of favor in many states. It could compel local lawmakers to take a public stand on capital punishment ahead of November elections for the Republican-controlled state House of Representatives and Democrat-dominated state Senate.
“Cop killers and child murderers deserve the ultimate punishment,” Martinez said in a written statement. “If you kill an officer, you deserve the death penalty. If you kill a child, you deserve the death penalty. It’s time we say enough is enough.”