New Mexico

Spousal communication privilege ‘has outlived its useful life,’ state supreme court says

The New Mexico Supreme Court has abolished the spousal communication privilege in a murder case based on testimony by the defendant’s ex-wife and estranged current spouse. The court said the privilege “has outlived its useful life,” report the Legal Profession Blog and the Associated Press. Justifications that have been cited…

Sep 4, 2019 10:55 AM CDT

In states where inmates can vote, few exercise their right to cast ballots

When Sen. Bernie Sanders championed voting rights for prisoners during a CNN town hall, he spotlighted an intensifying national debate about why going to prison means losing the right to vote.

Jun 14, 2019 7:30 AM CDT

Facing shortage of lawyers in some areas, this state is considering licensing legal technicians

The New Mexico Supreme Court has appointed a work group to consider whether the state should allow licensed legal technicians to provide civil legal services. The court has asked the group to submit a report by January 2020, according to a May 21 press release. Courthouse News Service and the…

May 28, 2019 7:00 AM CDT

In this state, almost all juveniles in detention facilities have at least 1 psychiatric diagnosis

In many school districts in New Mexico, juveniles with disabilities are disproportionately referred to police, according to an analysis of federal data by an investigative reporting group. At least 29 of the 44 school districts that referred students to police during the 2015-16 school year disproportionately referred students with disabilities,…

May 14, 2019 1:55 PM CDT

Plaintiffs seeking more school funding are using states’ own performance requirements to win

Parents and school districts have been suing over school funding, using state-mandated performance standards to argue that states aren’t living up to their end of the bargain—and they’re winning.

Apr 1, 2019 1:40 AM CDT

Lawyer can be sanctioned for frivolous challenge to bail reform, 10th Circuit rules

Updated: A federal appeals court has agreed to toss a challenge to New Mexico bail reform rules that discourage the use of money bail. The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at Denver upheld dismissal of the suit as well as a sanction of nearly $15,000 against the lawyer for…

Feb 26, 2019 12:13 PM CST

US begins sending asylum-seekers at San Ysidro back to Mexico

The Department of Homeland Security has announced that, beginning Friday, asylum-seekers at the San Ysidro port of entry are being sent back to Mexico to await asylum hearings. The California port near San Diego is the first to change procedures as a result of a new policy announced last month…

Jan 25, 2019 12:06 PM CST

New Mexico man applying for marriage license with DC courts told he needs passport

A New Mexico man applying for a marriage license in Washington, D.C., last month encountered two workers there who thought his state was a foreign country. Gavin Clarkson told the Las Cruces Sun-News that a clerk with the District of Columbia Courts Marriage Bureau told him his New Mexico driver’s…

Dec 3, 2018 7:10 AM CST

Did ‘warrior gene’ predispose man to violence? Top New Mexico court to consider evidence issue

The New Mexico Supreme Court has agreed to consider whether a judge improperly barred evidence of a genetic variation linked to impulsive violence in a man’s murder trial. Lawyers for Anthony Blas Yepez contend his genetic predisposition negated the intent required for a murder conviction, report the Santa Fe New…

Nov 28, 2018 7:30 AM CST

New York AG issues subpoenas to state’s 8 Catholic dioceses in sex abuse investigation

The New York attorney general’s office on Thursday issued subpoenas to the states’ eight Catholic dioceses less than a month after the release of a Pennsylvania grand jury report that stated more than 1,000 children identified through the church’s own records were sexually abused by priests for decades. The Wall…

Sep 7, 2018 6:05 AM CDT

Judge orders change to cause of death for civil rights lawyer

The cause of death for a civil rights lawyer in Albuquerque, New Mexico, should be changed from “suicide” to “undetermined,” a state judge has ruled. Judge David Thomson of the First Judicial District in Santa Fe, New Mexico, ordered the new cause of death for lawyer Mary Han, who was…

Aug 16, 2018 11:20 AM CDT

The war on lunch shaming: Policymakers work to protect kids from stigma

When Jennifer Ramo became executive director of the legal nonprofit New Mexico Appleseed in 2009, the Albuquerque Public Schools were making national news for serving cold cheese sandwiches instead of hot meals to kids whose parents were behind on their lunch tab.

Feb 1, 2018 2:50 AM CST

Some states are welcoming back ex-offenders to work behind bars

In 2010, Cindy Stubbs was nearing the end of a 14-year sentence in a South Carolina prison, determined never to return. A mother of four, locked up on gun and drug trafficking charges since she was 34, Stubbs worked inside the prison translating textbooks to Braille. Three months before her…

Jan 18, 2018 1:25 PM CST

2 New Mexico judges sue state judicial commission to obtain secret courthouse recordings

Two magistrate court judges in Aztec, New Mexico, have sued the New Mexico Judicial Standards Commission in an effort to obtain secret surveillance recordings allegedly made by a judge who has since been removed from the bench. Magistrate court judges Trudy Reed-Chase and Barry Sharer contend in the lawsuit that…

Jan 11, 2018 8:00 AM CST

ICE detention center proposed for rural Wyoming town with no immigration attorneys

A private company has proposed to build an immigration detention center outside Evanston, Wyoming—a town that reportedly has no immigration lawyers and is more than an hour away from the nearest immigration court in Salt Lake City. The jail proposal is from the Management & Training Corporation, a Utah contractor…

Jan 9, 2018 11:42 AM CST