A view of the Roundhouse in Santa Fe. Post file photo
By DANIEL J. CHACÓN
The Santa Fe New Mexican
A proposal to overhaul pretrial release in New Mexico—the only such measure introduced so far in the 30-day session, despite it being a much-discussed topic—is being held captive in committee.
The House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee, known as the “kill committee” due to its reputation for voting down Republican bills, tabled a proposed constitutional amendment Thursday to ask voters whether judges should be given more leeway in deciding if a criminal defendant needs to be held behind bars.
“I am just so shocked, actually, I’m not shocked by this committee, unfortunately, that they’ve done this,” Rep. John Block, R-Alamogordo, said after the committee voted 4-2 along party lines to table House Joint Resolution 2.
Block called the vote “shameful” and appealed to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, who is in her final year in office and who has repeatedly called for stricter pretrial detention standards, to do something.
“This is a message for the governor: ‘Please call a special session. Please call a special session. Demand this be on your call. Make sure that [House Speaker Javier Martínez, D-Albuquerque] does not send this bill to this committee ever again as its first committee, and please do that until this passes,” Block said.
The proposed constitutional amendment would ask voters whether courts could “make presumptions on a defendant’s threat to the community and deny the defendant pretrial bail if they are charged with a dangerous or violent felony offense,” according to an analysis of the proposal by legislative staff.
“HJR2 would remove the requirement that a prosecutor request a hearing and prove by clear and convincing evidence the need for pretrial detention,” the analysis states. “Instead, HJR2 would require a prosecutor ‘present’ this evidence while allowing defendants an opportunity to rebut the presumption by a preponderance of the evidence.”
Law enforcement officials and members of the Lujan Grisham administration—including Ben Baker, the governor’s senior public safety adviser—spoke in favor of the proposal.
“I am here to support the governor’s support for bail reform and pretrial detention, particularly in offenses where violence is perpetrated in New Mexico,” Baker told the committee. “We are in strong support of this matter being taken back to New Mexico voters for their careful consideration of where we stand today.”
Rep. Nicole Chavez, R-Albuquerque, who is sponsoring the proposal alongside Rep. Andrea Reeb, R-Clovis, said it was “disappointing” members of the governor’s own political party voted in opposition.
“Before [I was elected] I was here as a victim advocate,” said Chavez, whose teenage son, Jaydon Chavez-Silver, was killed in a drive-by shooting in 2015. “We all knew that if public safety bills were put in the CPAC committee, we called the CPAC committee the ‘kill committee,’ and that’s what that committee is known as when it comes to public safety legislation for victims in New Mexico.”
While the House speaker didn’t vote against the proposal himself, Chavez noted Martínez is responsible for committee assignments.
But Chavez said another bail reform proposal could materialize, noting next week is the deadline to file legislation.
“If it made it to the floor, I honestly believe that it would pass,” she said. “We know that this is what New Mexico wants.”