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SPONSOR: |
Sharer |
DATE TYPED: |
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HB |
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SHORT TITLE: |
Life Imprisonment Without Parole Or Release |
SB |
104 |
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ANALYST: |
Fox-Young |
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APPROPRIATION
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Appropriation
Contained |
Estimated
Additional Impact |
Recurring or
Non-Rec |
Fund Affected |
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FY03 |
FY04 |
FY03 |
FY04 |
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$0.1 Significant |
Recurring |
General
Fund |
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(Parenthesis
( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)
Partially
Duplicates SB 75.
Responses
Received From
Administrative
Office of the Courts (AOC)
Attorney
General (AG)
Corrections
Department (CD)
SUMMARY
Synopsis
of Bill
Senate
Bill 104 amends the Criminal Sentencing Act, providing a new penalty of “life imprisonment without the possibility of release or
parole” in every case where life imprisonment is currently a sentencing option.
The
bill strikes the language “when that sentence does not result in death,”
referring to the exception from capital felony sentencing for a third violent
felony conviction. The bill also makes a
violent felony murder in the second degree.
(Currently, it is murder in the first or second degree.)
The bill also makes the necessary changes in parole procedures to require the inmate shall “remain incarcerated for the entirety of his natural life.” The bill strikes language allowing the parole board’s discretion in granting parole to an inmate convicted of a capital felony. The new language states than an inmate convicted of a capital felony and sentenced to life imprisonment must serve the life sentence without the possibility of release or parole. A “corrections facility” becomes “an institution.”
The
bill repeals Section 31-18-14.1 NMSA 1978, which currently provides that a court shall explain to the jury that a sentence of life
imprisonment means that the defendant shall serve thirty years of his sentence
before he becomes eligible for a parole hearing. The new provisions shall apply only to
individuals convicted of a capital felony offenses committed on or after
Significant
Issues
The Attorney General (AG) notes that
under current law, if the jury cannot reach a unanimous verdict on the penalty,
the judge must impose a life sentence, currently allowing a defendant
to be eligible for parole after actually serving 30 years in prison. This bill
establishes another option, incarcerating the defendant for the entirety of his
or her natural life.
The Corrections
Department (CD) notes that inmates who are sentenced to prison for the entirety
of their lives are difficult to manage because they have no incentive to comply
with the rules.
Increased penalties will likely increase the
workload throughout the judiciary, necessitating increased resources for the
courts, district attorneys and public defenders.
CD notes that after a
period of approximately thirty years, the provisions of the bill may result in
minimal to substantial cost increases in costs to CD as a result of the need to
continue incarcerating those capital offenders who may otherwise have been
released on parole.
The bill duplicates portions of SB 75, but it does not
expand the list of aggravating circumstances for consideration in capital
felony sentencing as SB 75 does.
JCF/ls