SB 64 Lead Sponsor Sen. , D-Albuquerque

By DANIEL J. CHACÓN
The Santa Fe New Mexican

After faltering last year amid pushback from district attorneys, a revised bill that would end life without parole as a sentencing option for youthful offenders passed the Senate with bipartisan support Wednesday.

“When children cause harm in our community, yes, we must hold them accountable. But we must hold them accountable in ways that leave room for their potential to experience transformation, positive transformation,” said Sen. Antoinette Sedillo Lopez, D-Albuquerque, the lead sponsor of Senate Bill 64.

“I don’t believe that any individual should be thrown away. I believe that we should offer hope, hope to those who are incarcerated,” she said.

SB 64, which passed the Senate 32-8, would also create early parole eligibility for inmates serving long adult sentences for crimes committed in their youth, which would affect 75 inmates currently behind bars, Sedillo Lopez said.

The bill doesn’t guarantee early release but gives inmates convicted of crimes in their youth the opportunity to apply. The Parole Board still has full discretion to deny or grant parole.

“It’s not an automatic Get Out of Jail Free card,” co-sponsor Sen. Bill O’Neill, D-Albuquerque, said. “Every circumstance is different.”

All eight opposing votes came from Republicans. Sen. Bill Sharer, R-Farmington, said he’s been “very torn” with SB 64 but that he didn’t think he could support it because it “ignored” the victims.

“I do think the victims have to be considered in this and what it does to their … family when they have to relive this when somebody shows back up in their community that took the life of their loved one,” he said.

The bill would affect people convicted of crimes as 14- to 17-year-olds. Supporters of the bill worked “diligently” since last year to develop a bill that wouldn’t be opposed by the New Mexico District Attorney Association, Sedillo Lopez said, including by lengthening the time that must be served before youthful murderers are eligible for parole. Under the previous proposal, all serious youthful offenders would have been eligible for parole after serving 15 years behind bars. The latest proposal calls for parole eligibility to be set at 20 years for convictions of first-degree murder, 25 years for two or more convictions of first-degree murder and 15 years for convictions of other types of crimes. 

“These changes reflect an effort to account for heightened consequences in extreme cases,” Sedillo Lopez said.

Sen. Moe Maestas, D-Albuquerque, said the bill would be in the best interests of correctional officers since it would promote good behavior among inmates who have no incentive to behave.

“It is horribly unsafe to have someone that you’re supervising without any hope of getting out,” Maestas said. “But if someone has a flicker of hope and someone possibly can get out in 20 years, that’s going to curve behavior a lot, so if you talk to the correctional officers privately, it’s in their interest for us to pass this bill.

Sen. Jerry Ortiz y Pino, D-Albuquerque, said he strongly supported the bill, particularly on Ash Wednesday.

“We do need to have a forgiveness in our society, and I do think that when somebody is a child, we should treat them differently than when they’re an adult,” he said.

Senate Minority Leader Greg Baca, R-Belen, said he agreed a life sentence without parole is harsh and that society and individuals should be merciful and forgiving. But society has a criminal justice system whose job isn’t mercy or forgiveness, he said.

“Those are things for an individual. Those are things for God. That are things for faith,” he said. “What our structure is set up for is for justice, and it might sound harsh, but that’s what it’s for. It’s not to give you a hug at the end. It’s not to make you feel better about yourself. We hope you do, and we encourage that through the process, but at the end, an adjudication is just that, a rendering of justice on behalf of the state to an individual who has done wrong.”