ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - Governor Susana Martinez has made it clear she wants to overturn the death penalty ban in New Mexico, but it won't matter for New Mexico's two death row inmates.
Both were sentenced to death before the 2009 repeal of the death penalty in New Mexico.
Robert Fry has been on death row since 2003 for bludgeoning a mother of four to death with a sledgehammer. He has also been convicted of 3 other murders.
Timothy Allen was sentenced to death in 1995 for the kidnapping, murder, and attempted rape of a 17-year old girl.
But both men will not be executed anytime soon.
The cases remain bogged down in the court system, as defense lawyers file motions and appeals to keep their clients out of the lethal injection chamber.
"The basic challenge in those cases is ineffectiveness of assistance of council," New Mexico Public Defenders Capital Crimes Director Jeff Buckels said. "Both are also challenging continuing use of the Death Penalty against them as a general matter."
Viki Elkey heads the advocacy group that worked to repeal the death penalty in New Mexico.
"Both (death row inmates) are looking at a decade or more in these cases, if not more," Elkey said.
Governor Susana Martinez's push to re-instate the death penalty will have no bearing on both death row cases.
A Martinez spokesman today told us the governor doesn't have the authority to push the judicial system to speed up a timetable for the executions.
Source: krqe.com, January 20, 2011
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