Repeal the repeal is the name of a campaign pushed by Bernalillo County Sheriff

Sheriff

A sheriff is in principle a legal official with responsibility for a county. In practice, the specific combination of legal, political, and ceremonial duties of a sheriff varies greatly from country to country....

 Darren White

Darren White (politician)

Darren White is a former Sheriff of Bernalillo County, New Mexico, having been elected that post in 2002, and re-elected in 2006. Prior to his election as Sheriff, he served as Secretary of the New Mexico Department of Public Safety in the Cabinet of Governor Gary Johnson. White resigned his...

 to reinstate the death penalty in the state of New Mexico following the repeal of capital punishment

Capital punishment

Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...

 by the state legislature

New Mexico Legislature

The New Mexico Legislature is the legislative branch of the state government of New Mexico. It is a bicameral body made up of the New Mexico House of Representatives and the New Mexico Senate....

, signed into law by Governor Bill Richardson on March 18, 2009.

The organization

RepealTheRepeal is a non-profit, non-partisan organization whose goal is reinstating the death penalty in New Mexico for "the most heinous crimes". RTR will try to achieve this goal through a multi-pronged approach.

RepealTheRepeal opened a website and distributed a movie in favour of reinstating the death penalty.

Objectives

This campaign had at least three specified objectives:

• "Aggressively combat the misinformation campaign waged by the radical opponents of the death penalty and educate the public on the issue and the circumstances surrounding its repeal" ;
• Begin a petition drive in order to give voters the opportunity to “repeal the repeal” of the death penalty at the ballot box, pursuant to the New Mexico Constitution ;
• Urge voters to support candidates for the legislature and state office who will vote to reinstate the death penalty in New Mexico.

In an interview on the Santa Fe Reporter, Darren White said he was opposed to the death penalty for crimes other than murder.

Opinion poll

According to Public Opinion Strategies, 67% of the voters in New Mexico supported capital punishment for "the most heinous murders".

Subsequent developments

In March 2011, two attempts to reinstate capital punishment failed in the New Mexico legislature. One bill would have reinstated the death penalty by statute; the other proposed an amendment to the state constitution which would have been put to New Mexico voters in 2012. Both proposals were voted down by a state House committee.

See also

• Capital punishment in the United States
  Capital punishment in the United States
  Capital punishment in the United States, in practice, applies only for aggravated murder and more rarely for felony murder. Capital punishment was a penalty at common law, for many felonies, and was enforced in all of the American colonies prior to the Declaration of Independence...
  
  
• List of individuals executed in New Mexico
• Death Penalty Information Center
  Death Penalty Information Center
  The Death Penalty Information Center is a non-profit organization that focuses on disseminating studies and reports related to the death penalty by itself and others to the news media and general public...
  
  
• California Proposition 17 of 1972
  California Proposition 17 (1972)
  Proposition 17 of 1972 was a measure enacted by California voters to reintroduce the death penalty in that state. The California Supreme Court had ruled on February 17, 1972 that capital punishment was contrary to the state constitution. Proposition 17 amended the Constitution of California in...
  
  
• California Proposition 7 of November 1978