When a defendant has been convicted of a capital felony, the defendant shall be sentenced to life imprisonment or life imprisonment without possibility of release or parole.
§ 31-18-14 NMSA 1978
Sentencing authority; capital felonies
Known as the Criminal Sentencing Act
The act spans §§ 31–31 (23 sections).
Applied in 5 court decisions — leading case Marshall v. Lonberger (1983)
Most recently applied in – State v. Patterson – (January 2020)
1978 Comp., § 31-18-14, enacted by Laws 1979, ch. 150, § 1; 1993, ch. 77, § 5; 2009, ch. 11, § 1.
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: NMOneSource (New Mexico Compilation Commission). Reproduced from public-domain New Mexico statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.