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Friday, October 31, 2008

Justice System Strives for Ideal

By Joseph F. Baca
Retired Chief Justice, N.M. Supreme Court
      As a judge for 17 1/2 years on the District Court and 13 1/2 on the Supreme Court, one of the most vexing questions faced was the correctness of a sentence imposed in serious cases. Judges, district attorneys and law enforcement officers understand far too well the possibility for future crimes when a suspect is charged, prosecuted, sentenced and ultimately released on parole.
       When a district attorney is preparing a case to be charged many factors are taken into consideration; for instance, the likelihood of conviction based on the investigation, evidence available and believability of the witness.
       The prosecutor must also consider the prior record of the suspect, a history of violence and repeat pattern of crimes. A prosecutor also has the responsibility to asses the likelihood that the person arrested committed the crime, and not someone else.
       We do not have a lock-'em-up and throw-away-the-key system. The reality is that almost all felons will serve their sentences and be released; therein lies the challenge for all prosecutors and judges.
       Parole and probation are designed to ease people convicted of crimes back into society at the least risk to the public and to keep track of them to ensure they do not re-offend. The system works most of the time; when it fails innocent people pay the ultimate price.
       Despite judges, prosecutors and parole workers' best efforts, things do not turn out well all the time. Some tragic examples are the 16 killings attributed to 13 convicted persons over the last five years.
       Three hundred individuals enter probation each year in New Mexico — more than 1,500 parolees in the last five-year period. Many are troubled and pose some risk to society. That 13 of them committed murder is truly a tragedy.
       Judges, prosecutors and parole workers are constantly assessing individual cases for the appropriate punishment in order to make the tough choices to maximize the safety of the public and to serve the overall responsibility of the criminal justice system.
       Those who commit crimes must be prosecuted and punished while those wrongly charged must be identified. The unpredictability of behavior of an unpredictable population is a real challenge to those working in the system. When things go well and someone is returned a productive citizen, we all rejoice, but when someone engages in violence, despite all our good efforts, this is a tragedy.
       The criminal justice system is complex. The solutions to the problems it presents are sometimes elusive requiring the best efforts of judges, prosecutors, probation personal and all the other workers in the system. It was my honor to have been a part of that system.
       

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