Gov. calls for repeal of bail amendment
Martinez says new court rules returning criminals to the streets
Gov. Susana Martinez is calling on New Mexico legislators to repeal and replace a constitutional amendment and new court rules that she says allow dangerous criminals to be released back onto the streets.
The amendment, passed by voters last year, was aimed at just the opposite — allowing judges to deny bail and keep certain criminal defendants in custody — though it also stipulated that defendants deemed not to be dangerous can’t be held in jail before trial simply because they can’t afford to post bail.
Prosecutors across the state, however, have complained about the new court rules that were issued to help carry out the amendment and how judges are interpreting them. They say judges, in some cases, are requiring hours of testimony and “mini-trials” before they’ll keep someone in custody.
Martinez, a Republican and former prosecutor herself, said in a Facebook message late Tuesday that legislators should overhaul the pretrial detention process when they meet in January and send
a new proposal to voters in November.
“I’m calling for repeal and replacement of the constitutional amendment and court rule changes that allow criminals to continue to harm our state,” Martinez said in her social media post. “It’s clear that the judiciary is using these new provisions to return criminals back to our neighborhoods and it must stop.”
State Rep. Antonio “Moe” Maestas, an Albuquerque Democrat and cochairman of a bipartisan legislative panel studying the criminal justice system, said there’s no need to change the constitutional amendment.
He agreed that some of the new court rules surrounding the release of defendants are “problematic,” but the courts have shown a willingness to consider changes. And some of the new rules aren’t specifically tied to the constitutional amendment, he said.
“We don’t need to change the Constitution for the courts to do it,” said Maestas, who is also a former prosecutor. “The courts are an independent branch of government and will do the right thing.”
But there are other ways for the Legislature and governor to help, he said, including an increase in funding for staff members who monitor and track defendants awaiting trial.
“We get the criminal justice system we pay for,” Maestas said. “Until we fully fund the criminal justice system, we’re going to have a lot of problems.”
Debate over the pretrial detention hearings has intensified this year, especially as FBI data show increasing crime rates in Albuquerque.
In March, 2nd Judicial District Attorney Raúl Torrez, in charge of the Albuquerque-based prosecutor office, the busiest in the state, aired his frustration with the changes and how judges were interpreting them, formally petitioning the New Mexico Supreme Court for a written opinion to guide judges how to put on detention hearings.
Some judges accept a written police complaint, while others require hours of witness testimony, Torrez said, amounting to “mini-trials.”
Later joined by district attorneys from around the state, along with support from Attorney General Hector Balderas, Torrez argued that prosecutors need clear direction on what is expected in detention hearings and that a criminal complaint should suffice in some cases.
But defense attorneys, civil rights groups and some judges balked at that proposal, with one public defender arguing that standard leaves defendants “essentially at the mercy of the creative writing skills of a law enforcement officer.”
The state Supreme Court heard arguments in April, later ruling that judges have discretion in deciding whether a defendant should be held without bail pending trial and do not have to require witnesses to testify.
The Bail Bond Association of New Mexico then tried its hand at blocking the rules. The group, along with a bipartisan group of state lawmakers and a former jail inmate, filed a federal class action lawsuit in July.
A federal judge denied the attempt, but complaints that the changes are contributing to an increase in crime have not stopped.