{"id":4366,"date":"2009-03-18T10:47:00","date_gmt":"2009-03-18T16:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/03\/accused-cop-killer-talks-about-the-death-penalty\/"},"modified":"2009-03-18T10:47:00","modified_gmt":"2009-03-18T16:47:00","slug":"accused-cop-killer-talks-about-the-death-penalty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/03\/accused-cop-killer-talks-about-the-death-penalty\/","title":{"rendered":"Accused cop killer talks about the death penalty"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Gov. Bill Richardson<\/a> has until midnight to decide whether to sign a bill that would repeal the death penalty<\/a>, and he says the vast majority of those who have contacted him want him to sign it.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Santa Fe Reporter<\/a> gave a voice today to a person whose comments about the death penalty are interesting and loaded: accused cop killer Michael Astorga<\/a>, who himself might face the death penalty if he\u2019s convicted.<\/p>\n

The man accused of shooting and killing Bernalillo County Deputy Sheriff James McGrane Jr.<\/a> didn\u2019t say much to reporter Dave Maass about his own case, but he did talk about the death penalty, which Richardson has said he deserves.<\/p>\n

Richardson has long been a supporter of the death penalty but now says his stance is softening. Astorga, who is housed in the state penitentiary outside Santa Fe awaiting trial, told Maass that he believes Richardson is not having so much a change of heart as he is a \u201ccontradiction\u201d of heart.<\/p>\n

From the article:<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe death penalty, I believe, is for certain people,\u201d Astorga says and then admits he often contradicts himself on the issue. \u201cI think the majority of New Mexicans contradict themselves\u2026 I guess I believe no man on earth should be given that kind of power to take someone else\u2019s life.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Astorga brings up the 2003 Las Cruces case of 5-month-old Brianna Lopez, who was molested and murdered by family members.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sensitive when it comes to certain things, like children being molested,\u201d Astorga says. \u201cThat is also a Catch-22. Brianna didn\u2019t have a chance, but who am I to say who\u2019s to live and who\u2019s to die.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/p>\n

The article is fascinating. Read the whole thing by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

A prior version of this posting incorrectly stated that the repeal, if enacted, might save Astorga from the death penalty. The repeal bill would only apply to crimes committed after July 2009. Richardson could, however, commute Astorga\u2019s sentence if he is convicted and gets the death penalty.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gov. Bill Richardson has until midnight to decide whether to sign a bill that would repeal the death penalty, and he says the vast majority of those who have contacted him want him to sign it. Meanwhile, the Santa Fe Reporter gave a voice today to a person whose comments about the death penalty are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4366","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=4366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4366\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}