{"id":194423,"date":"2016-10-06T12:29:35","date_gmt":"2016-10-06T18:29:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=194423"},"modified":"2016-10-06T13:05:15","modified_gmt":"2016-10-06T19:05:15","slug":"archbishop-blasts-blasphemous-death-penalty-bill-and-political-jockeying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2016\/10\/archbishop-blasts-blasphemous-death-penalty-bill-and-political-jockeying\/","title":{"rendered":"Archbishop blasts &#8216;blasphemous&#8217; death penalty bill and &#8216;political jockeying&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_194436\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-194436\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Wester-John-771x514.jpg\" alt=\"John Wester\" width=\"771\" height=\"514\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Wester-John-771x514.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Wester-John-336x224.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Wester-John-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Wester-John-1170x780.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Wester-John.jpg 1500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Luis S\u00e1nchez Saturno \/ The Santa Fe New Mexican<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">John Wester, archbishop at the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Santa Fe, speaks against the death penalty bill during a press conference at the state Capitol on Thursday.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Santa Fe Archbishop John C.\u00a0Wester\u00a0says\u00a0it&#8217;s \u201coffensive\u201d that Republicans in the state House of Representatives voted to reinstate the death\u00a0penalty\u00a0\u201cin the dark of night\u201d <span class=\"aBn\" data-term=\"goog_1442028711\"><span class=\"aQJ\">Thursday<\/span><\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI find it blasphemous that the state wants to take a human life,\u201d Wester said during a news conference <span class=\"aBn\" data-term=\"goog_1442028712\"><span class=\"aQJ\">Thursday<\/span><\/span> morning at the Capitol. House Republicans pushed through the bill <a href=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2016\/10\/despite-dem-protest-house-oks-death-penalty-bill-at-night-without-public-notice\/\" target=\"_blank\">at about <span class=\"aBn\" data-term=\"goog_1442028713\"><span class=\"aQJ\">6 a.m.<\/span><\/span><\/a> after a long debate in the predawn hours.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"module align-left half type-aside\">\n<h3>About this article<\/h3>\n<p>This article comes from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.santafenewmexican.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">The Santa Fe New Mexican<\/a>. NMPolitics.net is paying for the rights to publish articles about the 2016 special legislative session from the newspaper. Help us cover the cost by\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/donate\/\" target=\"_blank\">making a donation to NMPolitics.net<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Wester said the 36 House Republicans who voted to reinstate the death penalty for those convicted of killing a child or police officer engaged in \u201cpolitical jockeying.\u201d\u00a0The general election in which all 70 House seats will be filled is only a month away, and Republicans are fighting to maintain control of the chamber. They now have a 37-33 advantage.<\/p>\n<p>Wester\u00a0called on Republican Gov. Susana Martinez, who has made reinstating the death penalty part of this year\u2019s special session, to end her immediate push for the measure.\u00a0Wester\u00a0argued that, if Republican lawmakers\u00a0see the need to reconsider capital punishment, they should wait for the regular 60-day session beginning in mid-January, so all segments of the public could be heard.<\/p>\n<p>New Mexico repealed the death penalty in 2009. Three sitting House Republicans who voted to end capital punishment then reversed themselves <span class=\"aBn\" data-term=\"goog_1442028714\"><span class=\"aQJ\">Thursday<\/span><\/span>. Reps. Dianne Hamilton of Silver City and\u00a0Jimmie Hall and Larry Lara\u00f1aga of Albuquerque joined other Republicans in voting for reinstatement of death sentences in select cases.<\/p>\n<p>All 30 Democrats on hand <span class=\"aBn\" data-term=\"goog_1442028715\"><span class=\"aQJ\">Thursday<\/span><\/span>\u00a0voted against the death-penalty bill.<\/p>\n<p>Former state District Judge Michael Vigil, who joined\u00a0Wester\u00a0at the news conference, said including the death penalty in the special session \u201cdoes not allow for deliberation and debate.\u201d<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Vigil said the governor was taking \u201ccheap political advantage\u201d of several recent high-profile crimes, including the sexual assault and dismemberment of 10-year-old Victoria Martens\u00a0of Albuquerque, to gain points during an election season.<\/p>\n<p>Gov. Martinez&#8217;s spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<p>Vigil said the state should first research how much reinstating the death penalty will cost taxpayers. He said a similar study in Nevada, conducted when that state was considering a return to capital punishment, showed that pursuing and prosecuting such cases costs twice as much as other murder cases.<\/p>\n<p>Wester\u00a0said he had not yet spoken to the governor about his concerns because of the speed in which <span class=\"aBn\" data-term=\"goog_1442028716\"><span class=\"aQJ\">Thursday<\/span><\/span> morning\u2019s House vote occurred. He said he would like to meet with her to voice his opposition, but has the sense no one who is in support of the death penalty wants to have such a discussion.<\/p>\n<p>He and Vigil said they are going to ask lawmakers from both parties to stop the bill before the end of the special session.<\/p>\n<p>It remains unclear whether the Democrat-controlled Senate will even consider the bill after it reconvenes <span class=\"aBn\" data-term=\"goog_1442028717\"><span class=\"aQJ\">Thursday<\/span><\/span>.<\/p>\n<p><em>Contact Robert\u00a0Nott\u00a0at 505-986-3021 or\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:rnott@sfnewmexican.com\" target=\"_blank\">rnott@sfnewmexican.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Santa Fe Archbishop John C. Wester says it&#8217;s \u201coffensive\u201d that Republicans in the state House of Representatives voted to reinstate the death penalty \u201cin the dark of night\u201d Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":194436,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[3305,142,203,177,107],"class_list":["post-194423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-2016-special-session","tag-crime","tag-law-enforcement","tag-religion","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}