Remember judges who free criminals when you vote

AFTER READING the April 28 edition, I don’t know which of two front-page articles made me more depressed and angry, the one headlined “Suspect in heist, slaying was on pretrial release” or Joline Krueger’s “Stolen car caught in revolving door” column. Both reveal the alleged perps had been arrested multiple times for multiple offenses by our hard-working cops, but in all these cases our pathetic New Mexican justice system had managed to put these people back on our streets, free to recommit and kill. Once someone has had multiple “failures to appear” or violations on conditions of release, how in the world can our so-called “justice system” permit them to roam free?

When District Attorney Raúl Torres was elected, I had hoped Bernalillo County finally had someone who could return some sense of rationality to the system, but it seems I was sadly mistaken — but then he is somewhat hamstrung by a bevy of judges like Clara Moran, who decided in the slaying case there were conditions that could be imposed to reasonably protect the public. How did that decision work out? ... I hope I get a chance to vote on whether to retain (her); I will remember (her) name whenever I go to vote, and I hope others will also.

It’s a pity the stolen-car article didn’t also include the names of the judges who allowed that (alleged) criminal back out on the streets, time and time again. But then, to do so would probably have required dedicating an entire section of the paper.

STEVE MILLER

Albuquerque