Court instructs on pre-trial detention

Opinion offers further guidance on first-degree murder

New Mexico Supreme Court justices on Monday offered additional guidance to judges tasked with deciding whether first-degree murder suspects should be detained pending trial.

The opinion essentially instructs judges to evaluate first-degree murder suspects for dangerousness as they would any other felony defendant, rather than ordering pre-trial detention based on the seriousness of the charge alone.

It deals with two separate provisions under the state constitution that address the circumstances in which a defendant can be held without bond.

The first, approved by voters in 2016, allows judges to hold felony defendants if they determine that no other conditions of release will ensure the safety of the community. The second, a clause that has existed since New Mexico became a state, says that defendants accused of capital offenses can be held without bail.

The opinion comes in response to an appeal filed in the first-degree murder case against Muhammad Ameer, who is accused of robbing and stabbing Aaron Sieben near a gas station on Lomas east of Eubank in Albuquerque last year.

Prosecutors in the case sought to detain Ameer under the new amendment, but 2nd Judicial District Judge Brett Loveless opted instead to deny him bail under that older constitutional provision, because he was charged with a capital felony offense.

In an earlier order in the same case, the Supreme

Court reversed the decision, finding that the older provision could be used “only in cases in which capital punishment may be imposed upon conviction.”

And in the 47-page opinion filed Monday, the court said that because the death penalty was repealed in 2009, first-degree murder is no longer a capital offense, so the older provision would not apply.

“Our holding does not mean the district court lacks authority to deny pretrial release of a defendant charged with a crime that is no longer a capital offense,” Justice Charles Daniels wrote. “In fact, our district courts now have a much broader evidence-based detention authority applicable in both capital and noncapital felony offenses.”

Public defender Jon Ibarra said the opinion gives judges the ability to release people accused of murder in cases “where there’s no reason to think the person is otherwise dangerous.” He said detaining individuals solely because they’re accused of firstdegree murder is “contrary to established law.”

“From our perspective, people charged with murder should be treated like any other person who may or may not be dangerous,” Ibarra said.

The older provision, he said, was rarely used in Bernalillo County.

The 2nd Judicial District Attorney’s Office did not respond to a request seeking comment.