New Mexico Eliminates Death Penalty

I'm not sure this is such a bad thing:

SANTA FE, N.M. — Gov. Bill Richardson signed legislation Wednesday repealing New Mexico's death penalty, making it the second state to ban executions since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.

Richardson, a Democrat who formerly supported capital punishment, said signing the bill was the "most difficult decision" of his political life.

"Faced with the reality that our system for imposing the death penalty can never be perfect, my conscience compels me to replace the death penalty with a solution that keeps society safe," Richardson told a news conference in the state Capitol.

Given that death penalty cases tend to drag on for decades at a cost of millions and millions of dollars, and the deterrent effect of death penalties doesn't seem that important, it may make much more sense to just throw these people away for life and knock out all the legal shenanigans.