New Mexico seemingly poised to be latest state to elimination juvenile LWOP (after new press report about lost juve LWOPers)

This local press piece, headlined "Proposal to end juvenile life sentences in New Mexico on its way to governor," reports on notable new legislative developments in Land of Enchantment.  Here are some details:

In the early-morning hours Monday, the state House signed off on legislation that would abolish the possibility of a life sentence without parole for someone who committed a serious crime before they turned 18.  It would ensure that juveniles sent to prison would get a parole hearing 15 to 25 years into their sentence, depending on the severity of the underlying conviction.  Release wouldn’t be guaranteed, just a parole hearing.

The proposal picked up more support this year among legislators — following the failure of a similar proposal last year — and is now on its way to the desk of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.  “A lot of meaningful work has happened in people’s hearts this year,” Long said in an interview.

She was in the gallery as the House took up debate on the proposal about 11pm Sunday and adopted the measure at 2:15am Monday, the last approval necessary to send it to the governor.  The House passed the bill on an 37-25 vote.  “Children are works in progress,” said House Majority Leader Gail Chasey, D-Albuquerque, “and we need sentencing options that leave room for their potential to experience positive transformations.”

Republican lawmakers blasted the proposal. Some crimes, they said, are so heinous that a parole hearing shouldn’t even be possible.  Rep. Stefani Lord, R-Sandia Park, said the hearings will reopen trauma for families.  “I don’t see how this is good for grieving parents or our community,” she said....

In the Senate, six Republicans support the bill. But the House vote was along party lines, with Democrats in favor and Republicans opposed. A year ago, the proposal died in the House without reaching the floor for a vote by the full chamber.

This year’s proposal makes changes intended to address the opposition. It establishes a tiered schedule of parole hearings based on the severity of the crime, rather than calling for hearings at 15 years across the board. And this year lawmakers have encountered plenty of advocates in person, including parents speaking about their own children and young adults sharing stories of redemption....

About 75 people would be affected by the bill, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico, making them eligible for parole earlier than they would otherwise....  If approved by the governor, New Mexico would become the 27th state to end juvenile life sentences without parole, according to the Sentencing Project, an advocacy group.

Interestingly, ProPublica has this notable recent piece about juvenile LWOPers in New Mexico headlined "New Mexico Has Lost Track of Juveniles Locked Up for Life. We Found Nearly Two Dozen."  Here are short excerpts from the lengthy piece:

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s office has indicated that she will likely sign the legislation, if it is passed, by early April; it would go into effect this summer. In the meantime, officials in her administration could not answer basic questions about the number of prisoners affected and were unclear about which office is responsible for maintaining that information.

Carmelina Hart, spokesperson for the corrections department, initially sent ProPublica the names of 13 people in New Mexico’s prison system who were sentenced to life as children, which she said was the extent of the cohort. But a disclaimer below the list read, “Due to inconsistencies and mistakes over decades of data entry, as well as ensuing attempts of varying success to fix previous inaccuracies over that time, it is virtually impossible to conclude that all of these data are entirely correct.”...

Hart emphasized that the agency does have records of every person serving in its facilities, and that if the bill becomes law, NMCD will take the appropriate steps to ensure that it is in compliance....

One subset of New Mexico’s juvenile lifers who seem to have been disproportionately forgotten are those serving their time in out-of-state prisons.  Jerry Torres and Juan Meraz, for example, are both in the custody of the New Mexico Corrections Department for crimes they committed as juveniles in the state, yet they are locked up in Arizona — in a for-profit prison operated by the company CoreCivic.