SANTA FE, NM (AP) — The New Mexico Attorney General on Tuesday urged state lawmakers to exercise caution and remember the principle of innocence until proven guilty as they consider using the state’s bail laws as a stepping up response to violent crime.
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court C. Shannon Bacon delivered a state of justice address to a joint session of the New Mexico legislature — the first in several years. She outlined efforts to streamline court processes to keep law enforcement officers in communities and on the streets while lawmakers grapple with public frustration over violent crime, including a record-breaking killing spree in Albuquerque.
She also recalled public safety advances that came with the overhaul of New Mexico’s pre-trial detention system beginning in 2017 to eliminate cash bail and ensure dangerous individuals can be held pending trial.
“With the bail abolished, judges now have the ability to assess dangerousness, which was not possible before,” Bacon said. In Albuquerque and Bernalillo County, this has resulted in the detention of over 3,000 defendants pending trial. Something that couldn’t happen before.”
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and some lawmakers from both political parties have called for changes that would make it easier to keep certain criminal suspects in jail while they await trial. Currently, people accused of a crime can be held without bail only if prosecutors can convince a judge that no release terms would protect the public or that a defendant is unlikely to appear in court.
An unsuccessful bill last year would have raised concerns that defendants should be detained if they are charged with a serious violent crime, such as committing a crime. B. Crimes involving a firearm.
However, Bacon also warned against hasty changes to the state’s bail system, citing the 2019 wrongful incarceration of a 17-year-old high school student in a mistaken identity case, which was released after prosecutors’ efforts to deny release in court.
“We need to remember why our Constitution protects the rights of all people, including those accused of a crime,” Bacon said.
Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth says he doesn’t advocate a massive expansion of pre-trial detention.
“I think there are a number of things that we need to do on the crime front,” Wirth told The Associated Press. “I do not support adding new conjectures that I think would result in the detention of thousands of people who do not need to be detained.”
Democratic Rep. Dayan Hochman-Vigil of Albuquerque introduced a bill that would slightly change how judges assess an accused’s risk to the community.
Republicans in the legislative minority are proposing a constitutional amendment that would extend possible pre-trial detention without bail to crimes beyond felonies. Another GOP-sponsored bill would revive bail in limited cases and prohibit state courts from relying on analytical tools to assess the risk of a defendant fleeing court.
