STATE OF NEW MEXICO, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. MUHAMMAD AMEER, Defendant-Appellant.
NO. S-1-SC-36395
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO
April 23, 2018
Christina P. Argyres and Charles W. Brown, District Judges
Scott Wisniewski, Assistant Public Defender
Matthias Swonger, Assistant Public Defender
Albuquerque, NM
for Appellant
Maris Veidemanis, Assistant Attorney General
Santa Fe, NM
for Appellee
DANIELS, Justice.
{1} Since New Mexico became a state over a hundred years ago,
{2} In 2009, the legislative and executive branches statutorily abolished the penalty of capital punishment for first-degree murder, the only remaining New Mexico crime carrying a potential death sentence, for all offenses committed after July 1, 2009. See
{3} Defendant Muhammad Ameer is charged with first-degree murder committed on or after July 1, 2009. In this appeal from a district court order applying the capital offense exception to the constitutional right to bail and denying Defendant any form of pretrial release, we hold that first-degree murder is not currently a constitutionally defined capital offense in New Mexico that would authorize a judge to categorically deny release pending trial.
{4} Following briefing and oral argument, we issued a bench ruling and written order reversing the district court‘s detention order that had been based solely on the
I. BACKGROUND
{5} Defendant was indicted for, among other offenses, first-degree murder in violation of
{6} The State moved to detain Defendant pending trial under the new detention
{7} Defendant appealed the pretrial detention order to this Court.
II. DISCUSSION
A. Jurisdiction and Standard of Review
{8} The New Mexico Supreme Court is vested with exclusive jurisdiction over interlocutory appeals in criminal cases where a defendant faces possible life imprisonment or execution. State v. Brown, 2014-NMSC-038, ¶ 10, 338 P.3d 1276 (citing State v. Smallwood, 2007-NMSC-005, ¶ 11, 141 N.M. 178, 152 P.3d 821); see also
{9} The final responsibility for interpreting the New Mexico Constitution also rests with this Court, “the ultimate arbiter[] of the law of New Mexico.” State ex rel. Serna v. Hodges, 1976-NMSC-033, ¶ 22, 89 N.M. 351, 552 P.2d 787, overruled on other grounds by State v. Rondeau, 1976-NMSC-044, ¶ 9, 89 N.M. 408, 553 P.2d 688. In fulfilling that responsibility, we review all questions of constitutional and statutory interpretation de novo. State v. Boyse, 2013-NMSC-024, ¶ 8, 303 P.3d 830. “[O]ur primary goal is to give effect to the intent of the Legislature which proposed [the constitutional provision] and the voters of New Mexico who approved it.” Block v. Vigil-Giron, 2004-NMSC-003, ¶ 4, 135 N.M. 24, 84 P.3d 72. And we are guided by the principle that “[t]erms used in a [c]onstitution must be taken to mean what they meant to the minds of the voters of the state when the provision was adopted.” Flaska v. State, 1946-NMSC-035, ¶ 12, 51 N.M. 13, 177 P.2d 174 (internal quotation marks and citation omitted).
B. Historical Meaning of “Capital Offense” as a Crime That Is Punishable by Capital Punishment
{10} Since at least the late 1400s, the term “capital” has meant “[a]ffecting, or involving loss of, the head or life,” or “[p]unishable by death.” See The Oxford English Dictionary vol. II (2d ed. 1989) at 862; see also Black‘s Law Dictionary
{11} This was the common understanding of capital punishment at the time New Mexico became part of the United States and drafted its constitution to follow the lead of Pennsylvania and most other states, where the capital offense exception to the right of bail had become part of “almost every state constitution adopted after 1776.” June Carbone, Seeing Through the Emperor‘s New Clothes: Rediscovery of Basic Principles in the Administration of Bail, 34 Syracuse L. Rev. 517, 531-32 (1983); Brown, 2014-NMSC-038, ¶¶ 19, 26.
{12} A substantial majority of jurisdictions across the country addressing the same constitutional interpretation issue accordingly have held that an offense is a nonbailable capital offense only if it may be punished by imposition of the death penalty. See Martin v. State, 517 P.2d 1389, 1394, 1397 (Alaska 1974) (noting that
{13} This view, that crimes are nonbailable capital offenses only when they carry the possibility of imposition of the death penalty on conviction, has been referred to as the penalty theory. See Roll v. Larson, 516 P.2d 1392, 1393 (Utah 1973). The penalty theory rests on the reasoning that no amount of bail is likely to secure a defendant‘s voluntary appearance at a trial that may result in a death sentence. See State v. Johnson, 294 A.2d 245, 250 (N.J. 1972) (“In a choice between hazarding his life before a jury and forfeiting his or his sureties’ property, the framers of the many State Constitutions felt that an accused would probably prefer the latter. But when life was not at stake and consequently the strong flight-urge was not present, the framers
C. The Post-Furman Classification Theory
{14} In its opposition to Defendant‘s appeal in this case, the State argues that a capital offense is not necessarily one punishable by death but is instead a crime so categorically severe that the Legislature may statutorily designate an offense as “capital” and place it in a nonbailable constitutional capital offense category even if capital punishment for the offense has been statutorily abolished. In support, the State asks us to join a minority of jurisdictions that purportedly now follow what has been called a classification theory, citing United States v. Martinez, 505 F. Supp. 2d 1024, 1027-29, 1033 (D.N.M. 2007); Tribe v. District Court in & for County of Larimer, 593 P.2d 1369, 1370-71 (Colo. 1979) (en banc); and Hudson v. McAdory, 268 So. 2d 916, 920-22 (Miss. 1972). The State argues that courts in California, Colorado, Nevada, Mississippi, Louisiana, Washington, Utah, Alabama, Oklahoma, and West Virginia have adopted a classification theory and relies on a brief summary statement
{15} But none of those cited cases addressed the issue before us, whether a legislature can abolish capital punishment while still calling penitentiary-only crimes “capital” for the purpose of denying bail under a capital offense exception to a constitutional guarantee of pretrial release. In fact, neither Tribe nor Martinez involved a pretrial detention issue or any constitutional interpretation at all.
{16} Martinez was a federal prosecution for a murder occurring in what is defined in
{17} Tribe addressed the applicability of a provision of the Colorado Rules of Criminal Procedure requiring that juries be sequestered during trial in a capital case, following judicial invalidation of capital punishment statutorily prescribed for the first-degree murder crime with which the defendant was charged. See 593 P.2d at 1370. The Colorado Supreme Court clarified that the question of whether the crime was a capital case depended on whether “the pertinent [s]tatute itself provided that [the] death penalty could be administered under the facts alleged.” Id. at 1371. Because the Colorado statute still classified first-degree murder as an offense for which capital punishment could be imposed, see
{18} Our research reveals that no case in any jurisdiction, including those referenced in either Martinez or Tribe, has held that a constitutional provision guaranteeing bail in all but “capital offenses” will permit bail to be denied after a legislative abolition of capital punishment for an offense, as has occurred in New Mexico. The cases referenced in Tribe dealt with defendants charged under statutes continuing to prescribe capital punishment on their face after the actual imposition of capital punishment had been judicially barred in 1972 when the Eighth Amendment holding in Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238, 239 (1972), effectively precluded imposition of the death penalty under all then-existing state capital punishment statutes. Because the State‘s position relies so heavily on the purported adoption of a classification theory by ten states, we closely examine the law in each of those jurisdictions.
1. California
{19} People v. Anderson, 493 P.2d 880, 899 n.45 (Cal. 1972), superseded by constitutional amendment,
The issue of the right to bail in cases in which the law has heretofore provided for the death penalty has been raised for the first time by the People and amici curiae on petition for rehearing. Although this question was never an issue in this case, we deem it appropriate to note that article I, section 6, of the California Constitution and section 1270 of the Penal Code, dealing with the subject of bail, refer to a category of offenses for which the punishment of death could be imposed and bail should be denied under certain circumstances. The law thus determined the gravity of such offenses both for the purpose of fixing bail before trial and for imposing punishment after conviction. Those offenses, of course, remain the same but under the decision in this case punishment by death cannot constitutionally be exacted. The underlying gravity of those offenses endures and the determination of their gravity for the purpose of bail continues unaffected by this decision. Accordingly, to subserve such purpose and subject to our future consideration of this issue in an appropriate proceeding, we hold that they remain as offenses for which bail should be denied in conformity with article I, section 6, of the Constitution and Penal Code section 1270 when the proof of guilt is evident or the presumption thereof great.
Anderson, 493 P.2d at 899 & n.45.
{20} Subsequent developments explained the import of this cryptic footnote. Within months after the decision in Anderson, the voters of California approved a constitutional amendment to reinstate capital punishment and effectively supersede
{22} No California case has ever taken the position that the legislature may classify a non-capital-punishment crime as capital in the constitutional sense and thereby justify denial of pretrial release. In fact, post-Anderson cases have repeatedly emphasized that the reference to capital crimes in the California Constitution applies to crimes which the legislature has considered so serious as to permit imposition of capital punishment. See, e.g., People v. Superior Court, 25 Cal. Rptr. 2d 38, 39 (Cal. Ct. App. 1993) (“It is well established a capital offense is one which carries the
{23} California lawmakers have demonstrated their awareness that the legislature is not free to create constitutional capital offenses simply by statutorily categorizing non-capital-punishment crimes as capital. In 1982, the legislature proposed and the voters adopted amendments to the California Constitution to add categories of felonies other than capital offenses for which bail could be denied, including violent crimes when a court finds that the defendant‘s release would create a likelihood of great bodily harm to others.
{24} Despite the California Supreme Court‘s repeated clarifications of its Anderson dictum, footnote 45 took on a life of its own. It was replicated without further
2. Colorado
{25} Within months of the decision in Anderson, the Colorado Supreme Court adopted Anderson‘s footnote 45 in a brief opinion following the court‘s determination that the Colorado capital punishment statute could not be constitutionally applied as a result of the United States Supreme Court‘s Furman opinion, rendering capital punishment statutes unenforceable throughout the United States. People ex rel. Dunbar v. Dist. Court, 500 P.2d 358, 359 (Colo. 1972) (per curiam). At the time of the Dunbar opinion, the Colorado statutes provided that murder could be punished by death. See
{26} Following the judicial invalidation of Colorado’s capital punishment statute that led to the Dunbar decision, Colorado amended its murder statute to continue imposition of capital punishment.
{27} No case in Colorado has ever held that the legislature could statutorily abolish the possibility of capital punishment for an offense and still classify the offense as “capital” for the purpose of denying the constitutional right to pretrial releases. When the legislature acted to permit denial of bail for crimes other than offenses that statutorily authorized imposition of the death penalty, it did not simply statutorily label those additional non-capital-punishment offenses as some category of capital felony. Instead, the legislature submitted to Colorado voters a constitutional amendment adding to the historical capital offenses exception a list of other offenses for which bail could be denied.
{28} Prior to 1983, Article II, Section 19 of the Colorado Constitution provided that, pending disposition of charges, “‘all persons shall be bailable by sufficient sureties except for capital offenses, when the proof is evident or the presumption great.’”
{29} As was the case in California, if a simple statutory classification could make a non-death-penalty-eligible crime a capital offense in the constitutional sense, no constitutional amendment would ever have been necessary.
3. Nevada
{30} In initially dealing with the aftermath of Furman, the Nevada Supreme Court adopted the Anderson footnote in another brief opinion with no analysis, stating only, “We adopt the California view and affirm the order of the trial court [denying release].” Jones v. Sheriff, Washoe Cty., 509 P.2d 824, 824 (Nev. 1973) (per curiam). As in California and Colorado, the Nevada statutes still facially authorized imposition of capital punishment for murder. More important to our analysis, the Nevada Supreme Court explicitly reconsidered its reliance on the Anderson footnote just a
The California Supreme Court recently reevaluated the Anderson rationale in [Boyle], after the California legislature (1) enacted a procedural statute “forbidding bail in capital cases in which the proof is evident or the presumption great . . . and (2) delineated the class of such cases by substantive provisions imposing the death penalty for specified offenses.”
. . . .
The legislative prerogative to implement the bail provisions of [the Nevada] Constitution does not encompass inclusion of a non-capital offense as non-bailable; accordingly, we hold [the corresponding Nevada statute] unconstitutional. Only those persons charged with the newly designated capital offenses may now be denied bail, “when the proof is evident, or the presumption great.”
Nev. Const. Art. 1, § 7 .
St. Pierre, 524 P.2d at 1279-80 (first omission in original).
{31} Nevada, like California and Colorado, realized the need to amend its state constitution to permit pretrial detention of defendants other than those charged with death-penalty offenses. In 1980, Nevada voters approved a legislative proposal to amend the Nevada Constitution, adding the category of “murders punishable by life imprisonment without possibility of parole” as nonbailable.
4. Mississippi
{32} Hudson, 268 So. 2d 916, does not support the characterization of Mississippi as a classification-theory jurisdiction. In Hudson, another post-Furman case that quickly followed the short-lived 1972 Anderson footnote, the Mississippi Supreme
{33} Four years later in Dennis, 334 So. 2d at 370, the Mississippi Supreme Court addressed a situation strikingly similar to the one before us, involving an offense that was once punishable by death but which as a result of a statutory change no longer could result in capital punishment. Dennis explicitly held “that the legislature had no authority to amend the constitution by redefining the term ‘capital offenses’ found in” the bail provisions of the Mississippi Constitution, which had always been construed as crimes “which permitted the death penalty.” Dennis, 334 So. 2d at 372-73 (holding that “the constitution can only be modified by constitutional amendment”).
{34} The post-Furman statutory abolition of capital punishment for armed robbery meant that armed robbery was no longer a capital offense within the meaning of the Mississippi Constitution despite the fact the legislature still labeled it as a capital offense for statutory classification purposes. See Dennis, 334 So. 2d at 373.
{35} Mississippi subsequently amended its constitution to supplement the capital offense exception to the right to bail by authorizing pretrial detention in a number of non-capital-punishment offenses.
5. Louisiana
{36} Tribe cited three Louisiana opinions in support of its statement that Louisiana had adopted a classification theory for interpreting the constitutional meaning of capital offense. See Tribe, 593 P.2d at 1371 n.3 (citing State v. Hunter, 306 So. 2d 710 (La. 1975); State v. Flood, 269 So. 2d 212 (La. 1972), superseded by statute,
{37} Relying on the California Anderson footnote and the Colorado Dunbar opinion that itself had relied on Anderson, a majority of the divided Louisiana Supreme Court stated that it also agreed with a classification theory. Important to what the Louisiana court meant by “classification of crimes” is its explanation that “when [the] legislature last acted with respect to it, murder was, as it has ever been, a capital crime.” Flood, 269 So. 2d at 214 (observing that “the penalty is what made murder a capital offense”); see also Holmes, 269 So. 2d at 208 (explaining that “[t]he word ‘capital’ in criminal law has to do with the death penalty”). The court emphasized the difference between a case where the “legislature eliminated capital punishment” and cases like Flood and Holmes, where a judicial decision had barred implementation of the statutory punishment. See Holmes, 269 So. 2d at 209; see also Flood, 269 So. 2d at 214 (“Furman . . . does not destroy the system of classification of crimes in Louisiana.”). The court therefore held that it would continue to treat offenses statutorily prescribing capital punishment as capital offenses, “at least until the legislative process has reorganized the criminal law and procedure in view of Furman.” Holmes, 269 So. 2d at 209.
{38} Following the decisions in Flood and Holmes, the Louisiana legislature acted
{39} Several years later, the Louisiana Supreme Court decided another significant case on the constitutional meaning of capital offense, State v. Polk, 376 So. 2d 151, 152 (La. 1979). In Polk the defendant was denied bail based on the capital offense exception in a prosecution for aggravated kidnapping, an offense which statutorily was subject to capital punishment but which, because of judicial decisions, could not
We did not intend by our holdings to permit the constitutional right of bail in non-capital crimes to be indefinitely curtailed by legislative inaction in re-classification or re-regulation in instances where the death penalty provided by a statute is judicially held to be unconstitutional, whether the inaction be through oversight or otherwise; nor did we intend to hold that the constitutional provision requiring bailability could be evaded by arbitrary legislative classification as capital of a crime for which constitutionally no death penalty may be imposed.
Polk, 376 So. 2d at 153 (footnote omitted). Polk held that because the legislature had not promptly reformed its statutes to classify which crimes were constitutionally punishable by death, the defendant was entitled to be released on bail for an offense that was statutorily eligible but judicially ineligible for imposition of capital punishment. See id.
{40} More recently, in State v. Serigne, 232 So. 3d 1227 (La. 2017), the Louisiana
In cases that followed Furman, this court grappled with the implications of a constitutionally unenforceable death penalty that had not yet been repealed or replaced by the legislature. For example, in [Flood], the court found that murder remained classified as a capital offense for purpose of determining whether an accused is entitled to bail.
Serigne, 232 So. 3d at 1229 (emphasis omitted). The court noted that “Flood and Holmes arose in a particularly unusual and volatile era of developing death penalty jurisprudence and associated legislative responses” but that Louisiana now has “broadly rejected the prior ‘capital classification’ jurisprudence,” making it clear that a case where a defendant does not face the prospect of the death penalty is simply not a capital case. Serigne, 232 So. 3d at 1230-31.
6. Washington
{41} State v. Haga, 504 P.2d 787 (Wash.1972) (en banc), clarified by State v. Anderson, 736 P.2d 661 (Wash. 1987) (en banc), has also been offered as support for the classification theory. See Tribe, 593 P.2d at 1371 & n.5. The opposite appears to be true.
{42} Long before Haga was decided, the Washington Supreme Court interpreted its constitution’s reference to “capital offense” to mean “not whether the death penalty must necessarily be imposed, but whether it may be imposed” for a particular crime.
{43} Citing the California Supreme Court Anderson opinion, 493 P.2d at 899 n.45, as support, the Washington Supreme Court held that first-degree murder remained a capital offense as that term was used in the bail provisions of Article 1, Section 20 of the Washington Constitution. Haga, 504 P.2d at 788-89. But more illuminating than the brief reference to the California Anderson case was the Washington Supreme Court’s approval of the reasoning in its own precedent in Berry that what makes an offense capital is not determined by whether capital punishment is to be imposed in a particular case but instead “‘by the statutory penalty prescribed against its commission.’” Haga, 504 P.2d at 789 (quoting Berry, 88 P.2d at 433).
{44} If there remained any doubt about the Washington Supreme Court’s stance that the legislative penalty, instead of the legislative label, is the determining factor in what makes an offense capital in the constitutional sense, it was resolved in the Washington Supreme Court’s subsequent clarification of Haga in its
{45} In 2010, Washington also amended its 1889 constitution to add to capital offenses a second exception to the right to pretrial release: “Bail may be denied for offenses punishable by the possibility of life in prison upon a showing by clear and convincing evidence of a propensity for violence that creates a substantial likelihood of danger to the community or any persons, subject to such limitations as shall be determined by the legislature.”
7. Utah
{46} Both State v. James, 512 P.2d 1031 (Utah 1973), and Roll, 516 P.2d 1392, addressed the constitutional definition of capital offenses after judicial invalidation of the Utah death penalty in the wake of Furman. See Tribe, 593 P.2d at 1371 & n.2.
{47} James focused on the Utah Constitution’s guarantee that a jury could consist of only eight jurors “‘except in capital cases.’” James, 512 P.2d at 1032. Relying specifically on the California Anderson decision, James stated that the theory related to “a category of offenses for which the punishment of death might be imposed,” even where “punishment by death cannot constitutionally be exacted” as a result of judicial
{48} Roll, decided a few months after James, dealt with the meaning of the capital offense exception to the right to bail in the Utah Constitution. See Roll, 516 P.2d at 1392. While Roll endorsed a classification theory, it made clear that its understanding of that theory depended on the legislature’s classifying an offense as capital by prescribing the possibility of capital punishment:
The “classification” theory proceeds on the concept that the constitution and statutes refer to a category of offenses for which the punishment of death might be imposed. The legislature determines the proper classification of a crime according to its gravity, and this classification endures, although punishment by death may not constitutionally be imposed.
{49} In 1973, Utah amended the capital offense exception to the right to bail in Article I, Section 8 of the Utah Constitution by adding additional circumstances in which bail could be denied, in cases where a defendant is accused of committing any felony while released on probation, parole, or bail for a previous felony offense. Scott v. Ryan, 548 P.2d 235, 236 (Utah 1976).
persons charged with any other crime, designated by statute as one for which bail may be denied, if there is substantial evidence to support the charge and the court finds by clear and convincing evidence that the person would constitute a substantial danger to any person or to the community or is likely to flee the jurisdiction of the court if released on bail.
8. Alabama
{51} Ex parte Bynum, 312 So. 2d 52 (Ala. 1975), was another interpretation of a capital offense exception to the state constitutional right to bail decided as a result of Furman’s invalidation of statutory capital punishment provisions. Bynum adopted the classification theory expressed in several other jurisdictions’ post-Furman decisions and held that “[t]he only effect of Furman was to eliminate the imposition of the death penalty as it was then enforced, and not to eliminate the classification whereby crimes are categorized as capital for purposes other than punishment.” Bynum, 312 So. 2d at 55.
{53} After Furman was decided, the Alabama legislature amended its criminal statutes, which continue to classify as capital offenses aggravated murders that are “punish[able] by a sentence of death or life imprisonment without parole.”
9. Oklahoma
{54} In re Kennedy, 512 P.2d 201, 203 (Okla. Crim. App. 1973), was also a post-Furman case relying on California’s Anderson opinion to hold that the Furman decision “d[id] not give rise to a right to bail previously excluded as a capital
Any new categorization of offenses invoking the possibility of the assessment of the death penalty in a particular case will be deemed to be a restatement by the legislature and reclassification of offenses of such a gravity to allow denial of bail when the probability is the accused will receive a life or death sentence.
{55} As had occurred in a number of other states, Oklahoma supplemented its constitution’s capital offenses exception in 1988 by adding categories of offenses where bail could be denied to persons charged with “violent offenses, . . . offenses where the maximum sentence may be life imprisonment or life imprisonment without parole, . . . felony offenses where the person charged . . . has been convicted of two or more felony offenses,” and drug crimes with potential sentences of at least ten years imprisonment.
10. West Virginia
{56} West Virginia law provides no support for a classification theory to interpret the constitutional meaning of capital offenses. The West Virginia constitutional right to bail contains no reference at all to capital offenses and instead, like the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution, guarantees only that where bail is granted it may not be excessive. See
{57} The West Virginia case cited in Tribe was neither a bail case nor a case
11. Overview of the classification-theory cases
{58} The preceding state-by-state analysis of the law in each of the purported classification-theory states leads to several global conclusions. First, to the extent a classification theory in any of those jurisdictions constituted a departure from the historical interpretation of the constitutional term “capital offenses” in the context of bail rights, it was a short-lived response to the jurisprudential uncertainty in the brief period between the Furman decision and the subsequent legislative designation of death penalty offenses in reformed capital punishment statutes.
{59} Second, the classification-theory cases dealt only with the consequences of judicial determinations that capital punishment statutes could not be enforced, not
{60} And third, the manner in which legislatures were able to classify crimes as “capital offenses” that would be subject to denial of bail was not simply by labeling crimes with the word “capital” but by prescribing the possibility of imposing capital punishment, which means the death penalty, for their commission.
{61} The crime with which Defendant is charged would not be a capital offense as defined in the constitutions of any of the purported classification-theory jurisdictions because the New Mexico Legislature itself has statutorily classified murder as a noncapital offense by abolishing the possibility of capital punishment for its commission.
D. As a Result of the 2009 Legislative Abolition of Capital Punishment, There Are Currently No New Mexico Capital Offenses for Which Bail May Be Categorically Denied Under Article II, Section 13
{62} Unlike some states, New Mexico never adopted a classification theory to respond temporarily to judicial invalidation of the death penalty, and we are not called upon to consider that kind of issue here. Instead, we are asked by the State to do something much more unprecedented: to adopt an alternative classification theory by holding that the legislature itself can statutorily abolish any possibility of capital punishment for a crime while still labeling the crime as a capital offense for which the
{63} We have been offered no standard by which a reviewing court could determine whether a legislature has exceeded its constitutional limitations if the legislature were deemed to have authority to label non-death-penalty crimes as capital offenses for which the constitutional right to bail would not apply. Could the legislature label any offense a capital offense simply because it thought the crime serious enough to justify denial of bail? How many categories of capital offenses could a legislature create? Could it, for example, legislate that all first- and second-degree felonies are categories of capital offenses? All felonies? DWI or other misdemeanors? Could such a classification power depend on whether and when the statutes provide that a non-death-eligible defendant would be eligible for parole consideration? If the term were to apply to offenses for which statutes once authorized the death penalty, would it apply to all former capital punishment crimes or just those that existed at some particular point in history between adoption of the New Mexico Constitution and repeal of the death penalty? See, e.g., Section 1151 (1887), C.L. 1897 at 356 (codifying the territorial statute prescribing the death penalty for nonhomicidal train
{64} Any attempt to tie such a theoretical legislative classification authority to any guiding standard other than a statutory capital punishment penalty would not only be ungrounded in principle, it would be unworkable in practice. Without a firm defining reference like the only obvious one—a textual statutory provision legislating the possibility of capital punishment—there would be no articulable standard to guide either a legislature or a reviewing court in interpreting the application of the constitutional right to bail in noncapital cases.
{65} The lack of any law-based principled or practical standard for determining the bounds of the “capital offenses” term in Article II, Section 13 of the New Mexico Constitution, at least if we abandon the clear historical standard of the possible imposition of the death penalty, is the fatal flaw in the proposed classification theory in this case. If the Legislature were to be given the sweeping power to attach a capital
{66} We recognize that the continued statutory use of the capital felony categorization after New Mexico’s statutory abolition of capital punishment has resulted in confusing alternative uses of the “capital” adjective in New Mexico statutes and judicial opinions. The State correctly cites a number of opinions filed after New Mexico abolished capital punishment in which this Court has “continued to refer to first-degree murder as a capital crime in cases where the defendant has been sentenced to life imprisonment.” See, e.g., State v. Serna, 2013-NMSC-033, ¶ 33, 305 P.3d 936 (stating that “murder” is “a capital felony”); State v. Dowling, 2011-NMSC-016, ¶ 8, 150 N.M. 110, 257 P.3d 930 (“First degree murder is a capital felony.”). While those cases did not involve any interpretation of the constitutional term “capital offenses,” we acknowledge that all concerned, including this Court, should try to lessen any confusion in addressing the differing statutory and
{67} The indiscriminate use of that term leads to confusion in applying the law. For example, the Court of Appeals stated in State v. Segura, 2014-NMCA-037, ¶ 7, 321 P.3d 140, that “[u]nder Article II, Section 13 of the New Mexico Constitution, every accused, except a person accused of first degree murder where the proof is evident or the presumption great, is entitled to bail.” But that statement was based on neither New Mexico precedent nor the wording of the New Mexico Constitution. The Constitution does not say that bail may be categorically denied in cases of first-degree murder; it says bail may be denied for persons charged with capital offenses. Unlike some other states which have expanded the categorical detention authority in their constitutions to include persons charged with crimes subject to life sentence and other categories of crimes, New Mexico has never done so.
{68} This Court has never explicitly or implicitly held that nonbailable capital offenses in Article II, Section 13 include crimes not statutorily punishable by capital punishment. To permit any branch of government to redefine constitutional terms would violate the exclusive power of the people to amend the Constitution. See Ferguson v. N.M. State Highway Comm’n, 1982-NMCA-180, ¶ 6, 99 N.M. 194, 656 P.2d 244 (“The legislature’s plenary authority is limited only by the state and federal
{69} As a result of this Court’s research conducted after initial briefing and oral argument, we are unanimous in holding that the term “capital offenses” in Article II, Section 13 of the current New Mexico Constitution means, as it always has, offenses for which a statute authorizes imposition of the death penalty. To the extent that Segura or any other cases may be read to increase the offenses for which bail may be categorically denied under the capital offenses provision of Article II, Section 13 of the New Mexico Constitution, those cases are overruled.
{70} There being no death penalty statutorily authorized for any crimes committed on or after July 1, 2009, following legislative repeal of the last vestiges of capital punishment for offenses committed on or after that date, and Defendant having been charged with committing his offense after that date, the detention order based on the capital offenses exception must be reversed. Because Defendant is not detainable
E. Pretrial Detention May Be Ordered in Compliance with the New Detention-for-Dangerousness Authority in Article II, Section 13
{71} Our holding does not mean the district court lacks authority to deny pretrial release of a defendant charged with a crime that is no longer a capital offense. In fact, our district courts now have a much broader evidence-based detention authority applicable in both capital and noncapital felony offenses. In 2016, the Legislature proposed and the voters of New Mexico approved an amendment to the bail rights in Article II, Section 13 of the New Mexico Constitution, authorizing pretrial detention of dangerous defendants where “no release conditions will reasonably protect the safety of any other person or the community.”
{72} The State’s motion to detain Defendant in this case was based on the new constitutional authority instead of the older capital offenses provision relied on sua sponte by the district court. Following oral argument in this case, we remanded this matter for consideration of the State’s unaddressed request. Because we have no ruling or evidentiary record on which to review whether Defendant should have been
III. CONCLUSION
{73} For the reasons stated herein, we confirm our previous order holding that first-degree murder is not currently a constitutionally defined capital offense in New Mexico that would authorize a judge to categorically deny release pending trial, and we also hold that any outright denial of pretrial release for a defendant charged with a noncapital offense must be based on the new evidence-based provisions of Article II, Section 13 of the New Mexico Constitution.
{74} IT IS SO ORDERED.
CHARLES W. DANIELS, Justice
WE CONCUR:
JUDITH K. NAKAMURA, Chief Justice
PETRA JIMENEZ MAES, Justice
BARBARA J. VIGIL, Justice
EDWARD L. CHÁVEZ, Justice, retired, sitting by designation