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Thursday, December 27, 2007

Editorial: Guidance Needed On Death Penalty

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    New Mexico's courts have hit a roadblock in trying death penalty cases recently, and like frustrated drivers, the state's judges are heading off in different directions to cope with it.
    The obstacle is a major new study of juror behavior that defense attorneys are using to challenge the constitutionality of New Mexico's capital felony sentencing act. Based on interviews with more than 1,200 jurors in 354 trials in 14 states, the National Science Foundation study concluded that roughly half of capital-qualified jurors come to the courtroom predisposed toward the death penalty before they even consider the evidence.
    Confronted with challenges based on the study, judges in Santa Fe and Roswell decided to empanel one jury to determine guilt or innocence and another to consider sentencing. A judge in Portales responded by granting a change of venue. A Lovington judge decided the study had no merit.
    This is hardly a level playing field, with defendants being treated differently in different parts of the state.
    Now the issue has come before an Albuquerque court in the case of Michael Astorga, accused of killing a Bernalillo County deputy during a traffic stop in Tijeras in 2006. Both the prosecutor and defense attorney in the Astorga case agree that the constitutionality of New Mexico's death penalty should be settled before the trial opens.
    That clearly makes sense. District Judge Neil Candelaria has scheduled a weeklong hearing on the capital felony sentencing act in March. Astorga's attorney, Gary Mitchell, is expected to bring in the authors of the study. District Attorney Kari Brandenburg has hired a sociologist at New Mexico State University to scrutinize its flaws.
    Whichever way Candelaria rules, the losing side will undoubtedly try to go to the Supreme Court for a hearing.
    That would be welcome. Only the high court can restore consistency to the consideration of death-penalty cases in the state.