New York (state)
Capital punishment was reintroduced in 1995 under the Pataki administration, but the statute was declared unconstitutional in 2004, when the New York Court of Appeals ruled in "People v. LaValle" that it violated the state constitution. The remaining death sentence was commuted by the court to life imprisonment in 2007, in "People v. John Taylor", and the death row was disestablished in 2008, under executive order from Governor Paterson. No execution has taken place in New York since 1963. Legislative efforts to amend the statute have failed, and death sentences are no longer sought at the state level, though certain crimes that fall under the jurisdiction of the federal government are subject to the federal death penalty.
Capital punishment in New Mexico
Both Allen and Fry have filed petitions for writ of habeas corpus asserting that the death sentences in their cases are unconstitutional, both generally, and as applied to them individually. The conundrum is that if the New Mexico Supreme Court (or, later, the U.S. Supreme Court) happens to agree with Allen and Fry, their sentences will automatically become "life sentences." That is, they will both be subject to serving a term of 30 years before becoming eligible for parole. This is because, at the time each of their crimes for which they were convicted and sentenced to death New Mexico law provided only two options for sentencing in a capital offense: Life with the possibility of parole after 30 years, or Death. In 2009, the New Mexico legislature prospectively eliminated the death penalty, replacing "death" with a "true life" sentence—meaning, life without the possibility of parole. But the "ex post facto" clause of the constitution (art. 1, sec. 10) prevents the application of the life-without-the-possibility-of-parole to cases where capital crimes were committed in New Mexico before July 1, 2009.