Welcome!

The New Mexico Coalition to Repeal the Death Penalty (NM Repeal) is absolutely thrilled our campaign was successful in 2009 after working over a decade to achieve that victory!  Almost a year after abolishing the death penalty, we are excited to disband the Coalition and solely focus on New Mexico murder victim family members, helping them gain access to the services they require after such a horrific event in their lives.  In working to repeal the death penalty it became increasingly clear that there were many needs murder victim family members had, and understanding and collaborating on these unique issues as we worked for abolition was necessary for so many reasons.  After identifying the ways we can advance the needs of victims, we are expanding our efforts and creating a campaign to identify and address the gaps in our current system, and to connect the different people working for victims every day in New Mexico.

Our exciting new effort – The New Mexico Murder Victim Family Advocacy Project – will be a year-long campaign to identify services available in NM, connect service providers, create materials for survivors and solidify a process for the continued sharing of resources for victim family members.  Ensuring New Mexico is a state that cares about murder victim family members solidifies our abolition victory and paves the way to honestly deal with tragedy in our community.  As we have for many years, we will work with Murder Victim Families for Reconciliation (MVFR) and are excited to continue that important collaboration.  The project is underway, with a projected completion date of spring 2011.  At that time we will assess our findings and determine if there is need for further involvement from our campaign.

We know many of you are interested in finishing the victims’ work we began with Representative Chasey, and we will keep you informed about our progress with the Project and how you can help in the near future.  If you are ready to move on, just drop us a line and we will remove you from the mailing list for victim work updates.

But what if someone tries to bring the death penalty back to New Mexico?  We hope you continue to stay in contact with your legislators about the death penalty.  Our community is safer when we spend time and resources on true public safety like increased patrols, better training, treatment options and the numerous other ways it is more cost effective and safer to have life without parole vs. the death penalty in New Mexico.  We also have many partners in New Mexico who will always be very aware of any reinstatement efforts, including the New Mexico Conference of Churches, the ACLU-NM, the National Association of Social Workers – NM, Lutheran Advocacy Ministry, our New Mexico Catholic Bishops, the NM Public Defenders and the NM Criminal Defense Lawyers Association.  NM Repeal, via its allies, will continue to monitor the legislature for hints of a serious effort to reinstate the death penalty here in New Mexico, and you can be assured we will call on you to help us squash any such legislation.  Additionally, while serious opportunities to repeal the Federal death penalty are still a few years off, as an NCADP Affiliate we will be the vehicle for New Mexicans to assist in that campaign.

What if I want to do education and outreach on the death penalty in schools, churches or other venues in New Mexico?  Great!  Our focus has changed because the reason we were formed has been realized, but we still support education in our state and are glad you are interested too!  Luckily for us we are an Affiliate of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, and they are available to you at any time you are interested in further educational efforts in your community.  We will remain an Affiliate as we work on our victims’ issues, making the most of tools and support provided by NCADP’s new “Rachel’s Fund” program, which  assists Affiliates in advocating for better services and support for murder victim family members. 

Thank you for your active support over the last years, and we look forward to working together as we truly put murder victim family members first in New Mexico.  Our ground-breaking work will help all the family members in New Mexico who have lost so much – and we honor them with our efforts.  As we develop the New Mexico Murder Victim Family Advocacy Project, we ask for your continued financial support.  All contributions are tax-deductible and will help support the project for the remainder of the year. 

We also welcome your feedback. Contact us with your comments and suggestions.