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Gov.
Martinez vetoes bill
for child murder
NEW
MEXICO Newsby TomTerrific
Thu Mar 08, 2012 1:59 am
SANTA FE - Gov.
Susana Martinez on Wednesday vetoed a crime bill she
saidactually would have
undercut district attorneys in high-stakes cases.The bill as first
drafted permitted sentences of life in prison withoutpossibility
of parole for
those convicted of first-degree murder of a child. But Martinez said
amendments to the bill by the SenateJudiciary
Committee created something different by allowing exceptions based on
the age of the killer
and the particulars of the crime. Martinez, a former district attorney,
said one effect of the rewritten bill could have been lighter
punishment for certain killers. For instance, she said, if a
17-year-old murdered a police officer in the line ofduty, the amended
bill would shield the killerfrom a life prison term without
parole. Martinez said in
her veto message that she would have supported the
original bill, but could not accept the changes to it. The sponsor,
Sen. Mary Jane Garcia, said she did not believe amendments to her bill
made the legal system less strict. "I'm devastated," Garcia, D-Do-a
Ana, said of the veto. Garcia said her intent was simple: She wanted to
target predatory childkillers,
such as the murderer of Adam Walsh in Florida. Walsh was 6years old
when somebody
abducted him from a mall and murdered him.
Serial killer Ottis Toole
subsequently confessed to killing the boy, though he recanted and died
without being tried in Walsh's death. Garcia said those who prey on
children younger than 13should
face the harshest penalty available in New Mexico life in prison
without the chance of parole.
New Mexico legislators outlawed the death penalty in 2009. Garcia said
she
did not know if the governor vetoedon the bill
because of their political disagreements over driver's licenses for
illegal immigrants
or forced retention of third-graders who are in the bottom tier on
reading tests. But Martinez, in herveto message, applauded Garcia for
the original
bill. Martinez said the amended
version simply had holes in it. As originally drafted, the bill would
have meant life without parole possible for Tiffany Toribio, who
pleaded guilty to suffocating her toddler son, then burying him at a
playground in Albuquerque, Martinez said. But, she said, an amendment
to Garcia's bill said the punishment
of life without parole depended on the child being "forcibly abducted."
"Clearly, Ms. Toribio did not forcibly abduct her son before she
intentionally killed him," Martinez said. Garcia said she had not
intended her bill as one to heighten punishments for busive parents.
She said she
wanted to strengthen the law so that child predators who kill could
never get out of prison. Sen. Gerald Ortiz y Pino, D-Albuquerque, was
one of two senators who voted againstthe bill. He said
he did not understand the logic of increasing sentences based on the
narrow
circumstances that Garcia outlined.
Article found here:
Why
do law makers have to be so difficult? The wording should say "If you
kill a child who you abducted, if you kill a child who you are
abusing, if you kill a child through any illegal act
other than accidental killing, you go to jail forever, you don't get
parole, you stay there until you die!
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