As special legislative session looms, New Mexico’s AG says crime victims need more support
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – New Mexico lawmakers are preparing to meet for a special lawmaking session in July. The state’s governor has primary control over the session, but others, like the state’s attorney general, are asking for lawmakers to address issues like victims’ rights and providing faster DNA evidence processing.
“We are tired of every year – year after year – living in a community that cannot provide the basic public safety that we’re all entitled to,” New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez said during a press conference on Thursday. “But this is something that we have the power to change.”
Citing FBI data, Torrez told the governor’s office in a letter, “93% of rapes, 90% of robberies, 79% of homicides, and 70% of aggravated assaults in New Mexico go unsolved.”
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Torrez outlined three requests his office hopes to see discussed during the special session. Those include (1) investing in rapid DNA analysis machines and software, (2) boosting transparency and accountability for the oversight of accused individuals waiting for their trials, and (3) fully funding a crime victim advocacy unit within the attorney general’s office.
Torrez said these priorities are currently causing challenges in addressing crime. “The current backlog at the state lab and other facilities sometimes means that DNA evidence can wait five, six, seven [months], sometimes up to a year before it’s actually analyzed,” Torrez explains.
Farmington Police Chief Steve Hebbe agreed and added that the DNA analysis machines and software are hundreds of thousands of dollars – something smaller departments can’t afford. “This was something around the state you could have smaller agencies working together and kind of a regional collaborative to get into equipment like this and help them more quickly solve crimes and get more advanced leads, that would lead to the solution of crimes,” Hebbe said.
When it comes to transparency around accused individuals waiting for trial, Torrez said the public has a right to better accountability for the whereabouts and monitoring of accused criminals that have been released into the community before their trial. Torrez’s office recently filed a lawsuit against the Second Judicial District Court over those sorts of public records.
One mother, Angel Alire, whose son Devon Heyborne was killed by a man out on pretrial release, called for this change: “During my son’s killer’s trial, testimony was given by a court employee that within a six week period, there was 113 alerts that he left his residence. 113 times that he violated his terms of release. Yet, remained out of jail. 113 times that my family’s nightmare could have been avoided.”
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And for victims’ advocacy, Torrez said the state’s constitution protects victims of crime in theory, but in practice, the state has dropped the ball.
“We’ve had a lot of conversations in Santa Fe about expanding various opportunities for people to bring civil rights claims against the government, but never to the benefit of victims,” Torrez said. “Maybe that’s something that a conversation should be had around.”
In a press conference on Thursday, May 16, Torrez and Linda Atkinson, the executive director of the New Mexico Victims’ Rights Project, also asked for more support for victims of crime.
“I think it’s time that we come into the 21st century, and treat victims of crime as human beings, with dignity and respect,” Atkinson said.
The special session is only expected to last a couple of days, and that means there’s limited time to discuss issues. Already, lawmakers expressed concern that there might not be time to tackle some of the governor’s priorities.
“When we’re looking at a special session. We’re naturally walking into a situation where time is limited, there is not as much opportunity to dig into some of these bigger issues,” Torrez said. But “these [priorities] were picked because they are things that I think the legislature can actually accomplish within the constraints of a special session.”
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