NM: State Supreme Court says sex offender parole applies even without prison time
The New Mexico Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that people convicted of certain sex crimes must serve an indeterminate parole term even if they do not serve time in state prison.
In a unanimous opinion, the justices ruled that an Otero County man was improperly discharged from a 5 to 20-year sex offender parole term. “Indeterminate sex offender parole is in fact imposed at sentencing because the Legislature has stated in Section 31-21-10.1(A) that the district court must include it in the judgment and sentence for certain enumerated sex crimes,” Chief Justice Julie J. Vargas wrote for the Court.
The Court said parole attaches at sentencing along with the basic sentence, even though the parole term does not begin until the initial sentence is completed. The justices said the statute requires sex offender parole when a defendant is sentenced to prison for certain sex crimes, but does not require the defendant to actually serve time in prison before the parole term applies.
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interesting the discrepancy in legal application between anything under the sex offender umbrella and every single other crime. the mental gymnastics is astonishing. Something is really really wrong with American justice.
Obvious
I am not saying a sex offense is a good thing, but isn’t murdering someone worse? And yet most murders if released, other than having a felony on their record, if they stay out of trouble, they can blend back into to society, get a job and mostly be left alone.
On the other hand, at least in Florida, some of us have not re-committed any crime in more than 30 years, yet we are on a registry for life that makes it possible for us to go to prison for something as simple as a paperwork error, registering late, or forgetting to get your tag renewed.
I can just see one of us in prison and a guy says, “I killed someone, what did you do” and you do not know what to say as all you did was forget to sign a piece of paper. The other inmate would die on the spot of laughter.
They have NO boundaries. They say they go by the law, but the problem is, they ARE the law, and can change or modify guidelines or laws to fit any situation to meet whatever end they desire. I don’t see this as justice, I see this as criminals playing god.
Indeterminate?
Gee, as if the registry isn’t bad enough, WTH!