State v. Ortega

OPINION

MONTGOMERY, Justice.

In this case we rekindle the debate over one of the most controversial doctrines from the common law: the felony-murder rule. The rule in New Mexico is now statutory; and defendant Ortega, convicted below of two felony murders, attacks the statute as unconstitutional. He argues that the rule establishes a presumption of mens rea in violation of the Due Process Clause in the fourteenth amendment to the United States Constitution. Alternatively, he argues that the rule creates a strict-liability crime in violation of an asserted due-process requirement that serious,…