The New Mexico House of Representatives has approved a bill to reinstate the death penalty.
House Republicans took up the deliberations on the bill after midnight despite opposition by democratic lawmakers who described the early morning effort as a maneuver to avoid public scrutiny.
The House voted 36-30 on Thursday morning after deliberating through the night on whether to restore capital punishment by lethal injection for killers of police, children and corrections officers.
The Democrat-controlled Senate has yet to take up the issue during a special legislative session aimed at closing a major state budget shortfall. The Senate adjourned last week after approving a slate of solvency proposals and returns to Santa Fe on Thursday.
New Mexico repealed the death penalty in 2009. Republican Gov. Susana Martinez is pushing for stricter criminal sentencing in response to the recent killing of two police officers and the August sexual assault, killing and mutilation of 10-year-old Victoria Martens in Albuquerque.