State v. Morales

OPINION

MAES, Justice.

{1} The dispositive issue in this appeal is whether a statutory amendment to NMSA 1978, Section 30-1-8 (1963, as amended through 2005), which abolished the fifteen-year statute of limitations for all capital felonies and first-degree violent felonies, applies to crimes committed before its effective date of July 1, 1997. See 1997 N.M. Laws, ch. 157, § 1 (hereinafter referred to as the 1997 amendment). Although the extension of a statute of limitations cannot revive a previously time-barred prosecution, Stogner v. California, 539 U.S. 607, 123 S.Ct. 2446, 156 L.Ed.2d 544…