By Mary Hudetz
Associated Press
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A proposal to expand New Mexico’s three-strikes law for sentencing habitual offenders went before lawmakers in Santa Fe on Thursday, with the bill’s sponsor saying it would make the statute on the books more robust but would likely result in potential life sentences for a small group of violent criminals.
The House Regulatory and Public Affairs Committee voted 4-3 along party lines in favor of the bill filed by Rep. Paul Pacheco, an Albuquerque Republican. The current three-strikes law in New Mexico includes crimes that already can result in life sentences and is so narrow that no one has been convicted under it since it was enacted two decades ago, he said.
His proposed changes to the three-strikes law would add 15 new crimes to the list that make defendants with at least three prior convictions eligible for life sentences, including voluntary and involuntary manslaughter, first-degree child abuse, armed robbery and aggravated burglary.
Defense lawyers and others opposed to the bill said in the hearing that the list of crimes the bill would add to the law are too broad and that the state already has a habitual offender law that allows judges to extend sentences for defendants with prior felony convictions. They also said Pacheco’s proposal could land people behind bars for decades if they are low-level criminals who rob homes armed with a knife or go on a one-time crime spree.
“There are going to be numerous collateral consequences that are going to result from this bill,” said Rikki-Lee Chavez, a lobbyist for the New Mexico Defense Lawyers Association. “And in such a short session, there’s not time to flesh them all out.”
The life sentence in New Mexico is 30 years.
It remains unclear how much Pacheco’s proposed changes would cost the state or how it would impact its prison population. But a New Mexico Sentencing Commission analysis of convictions over a 15-year period found that 60 cases out of more than 11,000 could have resulted in defendants receiving life sentences if the proposed new offenses listed in Pacheco’s bill had been part of the three-strikes law.
The cost of incarcerating those inmates over three decades would have been $56 million, said Tony Ortiz, executive director of the commission.
“This bill is not about locking everybody up,” Pacheco said.
Veronica Rael Garcia, whose 4-year-old daughter, Lilly Garcia, was shot and killed during a road-rage dispute in Albuquerque last year, is pushing for the bill to pass, saying she hopes expanding the law will keep repeat offenders behind bars and help prevent the type of violence that claimed her daughter’s life.
“These are violent people that are on the streets,” she said. “If (this bill) doesn’t pass, I’ll be here next year. I will be here and I will be fighting for my Lilly.”
The bill is expected to go before the House judiciary committee next.
Copyright 2016 The Associated Press