01 May 2018 :

A February 2017 Fiscal Impact Report prepared by the Legislative Finance Committee of the New Mexico legislature estimated that bringing back the death penalty for three types of homicides in the state would cost as much as $7.2 million over the first three years. The report notes that "Between 1979 and 2007 when the death penalty was an option to prosecutors, there were over 200 death penalty cases filed, but only 15 men sentenced to death and only one execution." The Law Offices of the Public Defender reports that the defense costs for the two New Mexico death penalty cases that remain in the system following the prospective repeal of the state's death penalty statute have been $607.4 thousand for one case and $1.3 million for the other. The Fiscal Impact Report also contains a survey of costs incurred by a number of other states in administering their death penalty statutes.