Brief for Professors at UNM School of Law as Amicus Curiae, Fry v. Lopez

Argument: This Court should reject the application of the death sentence to Robert Fry and Tim Allen for statutory and constitutional reasons. First, H.B. 285, 49th Leg., 1st Sess. (N.M. 2009) repealed the statutory authority governing execution of the death sentence. Without statutory authority, the Corrections Department cannot act. In addition, in light of the repeal of the death sentence in New Mexico, the application of the death sentence to Mr. Fry and Mr. Allen would violate the Cruel and Unusual Punishment Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the New Mexico Constitution. An alternative basis for precluding the use of the death sentence is the Equal Protection Clause of the New Mexico Constitution, which has been interpreted broadly by this Court. The Court should strictly scrutinize the classification at issue in these cases because it infringes upon the fundamental right to life protected by the Inherent Rights Clause of Article II, Section 4 of the New Mexico Constitution

Federalism and the State Police Power: Why Immigration and Customs Enforcement Must Stay Away from State Courthouses

The Trump Administration’s rhetoric and increased immigration enforcement actions have raised the level of fear in immigrant communities. The increased enforcement has included having United States Immigrant and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents appear at state and local courthouses to detain undocumented immigrants when they arrive for court. This presence has had an adverse effect on domestic violence victims who are immigrants, as they fear encountering immigrations officials at the courthouse. In El Paso, for example, agents detained a woman who was bringing a case of domestic violence against her abuser. There were claims that ICE was tipped off about the victim’s immigration status by the alleged abuser. The direct effect of the presence of federal ICE agents at state and local courthouses is to undermine the ability of state and municipalities to enforce their domestic violence laws. This interferes with the states’ sovereignty and the exercise of the police power, critical in our federalism system. This interference runs afoul of the limits placed on federal action articulated in United States Supreme Court cases that have revived protection of the state police powers. United States v. Lopez and United States v. Morrison and, to a lesser extent other Tenth Amendment cases, have set forth a reinvigorated sense of the states’ role in our federalism. Accordingly, under the revived notion of state sovereignty and police power in our federalism structure, ICE should be kept away from the state and local courthouses

Moderating the Use of Lay Opinion Identification Testimony Related to Surveillance Video

Traditionally, under the silent witness theory, when video surveillance recordings are authenticated and admitted at trial, the video speaks for itself. However, with increasing frequency, courts have permitted witnesses to provide lay opinion identification testimony about individuals in the surveillance video. The testimony is offered as lay opinion testimony that assists the jury, particularly in cases where the video is of poor quality, the subject\u27s face is difficult to see, or the subject\u27s appearance has changed by the time of trial. Recent state court opinions (including several state supreme courts as a matter of first impression) have upheld the admission of lay opinion identification testimony in an overly lenient manner that should be addressed. The primary problem with this kind of lay opinion testimony is that it poses challenges to effective crossexamination, particularly in criminal cases in which the witness is a law enforcement officer. Cross-examination that attempts to test the officer\u27s testimony may be ineffective or, worse, harmful, to the extent that it attempts to explore the officer\u27s familiarity with a criminal defendant. Courts have developed some procedural safeguards to protect against abuse of this form of testimony, but they are insufficient and fail to ensure effective cross-examination in all circumstances. This Article proposes additional safeguards that courts can use to moderate the use of lay opinion identification testimony related to surveillance video, while permitting such testimony when it is helpful to the jury in determining an issue of fact

Brief for Professors at UNM School of Law, Griego v. Oliver, New Mexico Supreme Court No. 34,306

Brief on same-sex marriage . New Mexico\u27s history reflects a deep commitment to equal treatment under the law and the protection of individual liberty. The framers of the New Mexico Constitution created substantial and unique provisions relating to minority rights and individual autonomy that are broader in scope than the corresponding federal law. These include an Equal Protection Clause interpreted more expansively than the Fourteenth Amendment and an Inherent Rights Clause with no federal counterpart. Our state courts have consistently exercised independence and pragmatism in applying these rights guaranteed by the New Mexico Constitution. A prohibition on marriage for same-sex couples in New Mexico is inconsistent with our constitutional text, history, and traditions. Such a prohibition discriminates on the basis of sexual orientation and is thus subject to intermediate scrutiny under the Equal Protection Clause in Article II, Section 18. It also penalizes the exercise of the natural, inherent, and inalienable right to form an intimate relationship and receives strict scrutiny under Article II, Section 4. Under both provisions, the ban is unconstitutional

Endogenous Skin Fluorescence is a Good Marker for Objective Evaluation of Comedolysis

Objective evaluation of comedone lesions, especially in vivo, remains a challenge. We have used the rhino mouse model in combination with topical application of all-trans retinoic acid as a comedolytic agent, to investigate the potential of fluorescence spectroscopy as a noninvasive technique in the assessment of noninflammatory acne. The results indicate that there is a strong correlation between the fluorescence excitation spectral features assessed in vivo, and the histologic changes identified, particularly the size of the utriculi as well as the dermal and epidermal thickness. We conclude that fluorescence excitation spectroscopy represents a promising novel and useful tool in the quantitative evaluation of the pseudocomedones and could also be used for the rapid and noninvasive assessment of comedolysis induced by the application of pharmacologic agents such as retinoids