Death Penalty Clarification

Astute readers have pointed out that in my story in today's New Mexican, I mistakenly said that if the governor signs HB285 New Mexico would be the 15th state to repeal the death penalty.

Not quite true.

True, we'd be among 15 states to not have a death penalty.

However, most of those states just never bothered to adopt a death penalty law after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down all state capital-punishment laws in 1972. In one of those states, New York, the courts threw out its death penalty law.

The only state in which the Legislature repealed the law -- and the governor signed the repeal -- was New Jersey, in 2007.