Criminal statue reform moves forward

SANTA FE (AP) - A proposal to scrap the statute of limitations on second-degree murder cases was advanced on Thursday after senators voted to send the bill to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Under a bill proposed by Sen. Bill Payne, the six-year statute of limitations for second-degree murder would be eliminated. The Albuquerque Republican's original proposal sought to remove all kinds of homicide from the statute of limitations but the Senate Public Affairs Committee amended the bill to keep lesser homicide charges with the current limits.

Under state law, there is no statute of limitations for first-degree murder. However, various time restrictions are in place for filing other felony and misdemeanor charges.

Payne said the law was needed to keep up with modern science, especially changes in obtaining DNA evidence.

"If forensics can prove that a person committed a homicide but it's later than our current statute of limitations, there should be no prohibition in the law from charging that individual," Payne said.

State Rep. William "Bill" Rehm, R-Albuquerque, is proposing a House version.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the New Mexico Criminal Defense Lawyers Association oppose the measure.

The moves come after the body of Albuquerque resident Michael Snyder was found in 2010 buried under a concrete pad next to his home. But prosecutors were only able to get his wife, Ellen Snyder, to plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter, partly because the statute of limitations had expired on everything she was charged with except first-degree murder.

He was killed in 2002.

Snyder is serving 11 years on a voluntary manslaughter plea bargain instead of life in prison.

Michael Snyder's sisters testified Thursday before a Senate panel and said they don't like the lightweight sentence his wife received.

"Knowing that she got away with it, or what we feel she got away with, we thought the law and the legal system would be on our side," said Laura Bowman, Michael's sister. "We found that it wasn't, and we're just trying to keep somebody else from having to go through that."