New Mexico may execute 2 long after death-penalty repeal
New Mexico’s Supreme Court is weighing whether the state’s two remaining death row inmates still can be executed after the state’s abolition of capital punishment.
Oral arguments were scheduled for Tuesday in the appeal of death sentences against Robert Fry and Timothy Allen for convictions in two brutal killings.
New Mexico repealed the death penalty for future murderers without canceling death sentences against Fry and Allen.
Attorneys for Fry say the execution no longer fits his crimes, while the state attorney general’s office says it still is appropriate.
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in 2014 on whether the sentences against Fry and Allen are constitutional. The court ordered further briefings on whether execution is disproportionate to their crimes.
New Mexico’s last execution was in 2001 against child-killer Terry Clark.
