I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
Prosecutors might have a harder time winning DWI convictions in certain cases because of a decision handed down this week by the state’s top court, the Santa Fe New Mexican tells us.
The court ruling will require prosecutors to sift through the facts of cases with a closer eye apparently. The New Mexican provides an example to illustrate how the ruling will affect prosecutions.
Before the ruling “an intoxicated driver found in a car that wasn’t moving could be cited and convicted for driving while intoxicated simply because the driver might have driven the car,” the paper says. The court’s ruling will now require prosecutors to prove “the driver ‘was actually, not just potentially, exercising control over the vehicle, and … the defendant had the general intent to drive.’ “
Santa Fe District Attorney Angela “Spence” Pacheco tells the New Mexican that in a case like that the new threshold could make prosecution tougher.
“(Before) it was a little more automatic if the person was in the car,” Pacheco said. “Now we have to figure out intent, and sometimes we have that information and sometimes we don’t.”
