High court justice, who authored end to execution, to retire Follow Us Question of the Day By MORGAN LEE - Associated Press - Tuesday, April 27, 2021 SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) - State Supreme Court Justice Barbara Vigil is retiring from the New Mexico Supreme Court at the end of June after more than eight years at the high court. Vigil wrote the lead majority opinion in 2019 that set aside the death penalty for the final two inmates awaiting execution a decade after the state repealed capital punishment. She also authored recent opinions on utility regulation amid the state’s transition away form coal-fired power plants.