State Senate passes bill to end life sentences without parole for youth
After an emotionally charged two-hour debate Tuesday, the state Senate passed a bill that bans life without the possibility of parole as a sentencing option for juveniles convicted of first-degree murder.
The 23-15 party-line vote on Senate Bill 43 came over the objection of Republicans who argued it would put the interests of criminals over their victims.
“What does tough on crime in New Mexico mean?” Sen. Greg Baca, R-Belen, asked his colleagues.
“It means loosening of sentences,” he said. “It doesn’t mean second chances. It means 12 chances, 15 chances — enough chances that you go out and hurt somebody else. That’s what tough on crime means in New Mexico.”
Known as the “Second Chance” bill, the proposal also would make youthful offenders eligible for parole after serving 15 years behind bars unless they’re eligible for parole sooner. If parole is denied, the offender would be entitled to a parole hearing “not less than every five years thereafter.”
“We’re not automatically letting people go free at 15 years,” said the sponsor, Sen. Antoinette Sedillo Lopez, D-Albuquerque. “We’re just giving them the possibility to demonstrate that they have been transformed. It’s a possibility of redemption.”
A spokeswoman for Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, whose legislative agenda includes increasing penalties for violent offenders, didn’t directly respond when asked whether the governor would sign the bill if it reached her desk.
“The governor supports addressing criminal justice reform through a number of avenues, including strengthening penalties for violent crimes and keeping repeat violent offenders off New Mexico streets, as well as providing a robust system for rehabilitation and reintegration when appropriate and applicable,” Nora Meyers Sackett, her press secretary, wrote in an email. “We will continue to follow the legislation as it makes its way through the legislative process.”
Republicans introduced a series of amendments the Democratcontrolled chamber rejected each time, including a proposal to continue to allow a life sentence without the possibility of parole for youthful offenders who commit first-degree murder of a police officer.
Sedillo Lopez said her bill “already takes this into account” — citing provisions that would be considered in a parole hearing, including the nature of the offense.
Sen. Crystal Diamond, R-Elephant Butte, said voters would remember Democrats’ vote not to include an exception in the legislation for killers of law enforcement officers.
“As we arrived in Santa Fe this session, conquering New Mexico’s rising crime rates was advertised to be a legislative priority,” she
said. “But I quickly learned that what some politicians say and what they do don’t always correspond. Some legislators just
placed a greater value on the life of a convicted cop killer over a
slain law enforcement officer. That vote and this vote will have
consequences because New Mexico is watching.”
Viewing the proceedings from the Senate gallery, Diamond said, was Nicole Chavez, whose teenage son, Jaydon Chavez-Silver, was killed in a drive-by shooting in Albuquerque in 2015.
“To know Nicole is to know a pain that no mother should ever have to know, and I pray every day, Nicole, that I never understand you,” Diamond said tearfully while speaking directly to Chavez, who started crying.
“I never understand the grief that you carry with you every day,” Diamond said. “This bill is a get out of jail card for her son’s killer.”
A fiscal impact report states about 40 inmates would become eligible for parole if and when the bill goes into effect. The proposed legislation still has to be considered in the House.
Sen. Craig Brandt, R-Rio Rancho, said a life sentence without the possibility of parole is warranted for a first-degree murder conviction.
“If you were that cold and that callous that you are willing to murder someone to be charged with first-degree murder, you deserve to spend the rest of your days locked up so that you can’t kill someone else,” he said.
“I cannot support going soft on crime when our streets are running with the blood of 117 people in our community that have been murdered,” he said, referring to the number of homicides in Albuquerque last year.
Sen. Jerry Ortiz y Pino, D-Albuquerque, said crime in the country has gotten more violent despite stiffer penalties. He said the state needs to address the root causes of crime.
“The poverty, the lack of good education, the drug addiction — we’ve got to turn those things around,” he said.
“If just piling on sentences did anything, I could have more sympathy for some of the amendments that have been proposed, but they won’t do any good,” Ortiz y Pino added. “The only way we’re going to help these young people change, I believe, is by lighting the spark in their hearts earlier in life before they get so hopeless, so angry, just angry.”
“I mean, I’ve watched them driving on the streets of Albuquerque,” Ortiz y Pino continued. “It’s frightening, but they’re not thinking about what the punishment is. It’s not going to stop them.”
In a statement issued after the vote, Brandt called the bill “a slap in the face to the victims and families” who would be affected.
“The governor said she wanted to get ‘tough on crime’ after 117 murders in Albuquerque. I guess it will take more than that for some of my colleagues to do the same,” he said. “I urge the House to reject this bill and the governor to veto it if it makes it to her desk.”
‘The poverty, the lack of good education, the drug addiction — we’ve got to turn those things around.’ SEN. JERRY ORTIZ Y PINO D-Albuquerque