Aryan Brotherhood Member Solicits Murder

An alleged member of the local Aryan Brotherhood Thomas Hill pleaded guilty today to soliciting the murder of a family member imprisoned for a sex offense against a child.

As a part of a larger investigation into the Aryan Brotherhood, FBI agents learned in 2006 that 24-year-old Thomas Hill was seeking someone inside the brotherhood's New Mexico prison membership to murder Stanley Hill because the younger Hill believed he had allegedly sexually abused a minor family child. Stanley Hill pleaded guilty to Criminal Sexual Contact of a Minor Under 12 in 2004 and is currently in prison in New Mexico.

The FBI referred the case to the Second Judicial District Attorney’s Office in Albuquerque in 2007 and Thomas Hill was indicted. After a series of court hearings, Hill appeared before District Judge Stan Whitaker this morning and entered a plea of guilty to one count of solicitation of murder. Hill faces up to nine years of incarceration in this case. A sentencing date has not yet been set.

This morning, Bernalillo County District Attorney Kari Brandenburg commended the agents and prosecutors involved in this long and complicated case. The cooperation between the FBI and District Attorney’s Office demonstrates the continuing cooperative efforts by all agencies involved in law enforcement to bring offenders in the community to justice.

NM Supreme Court Considers Constitutionality of State's Death Penalty!

Today in Santa Fe, the New Mexico Supreme Court will hear arguments for and against the state's death penalty, despite the fact that Governor Bill Richardson signed a death penalty repeal measure in March.

Currently two men, Timothy Allen and Robert Fry are on death row in New Mexico. Several others could face trials and death penalty hearings because their crimes were committed before the repeal becomes law in July.

The governor has said he would not commute the sentences of the state's two death row inmates and at least two district attorneys have delayed trails against defendants whom they plan to seek the death penalty, including accused sheriff's deputy killer Michael Paul Astorga and 44-year-old William Watson, who's accused in a murder for hire case.

Both sides will have only 30 minutes to argue their complex interlocutory arguments in front of the Supreme Court justices.

Astorga's defense attorney Gary Mitchell, who we interviewed here, last November, is using the Capital Jury Project report, as the center piece of his argument against the death penalty.

He tells us the report unequivocally shows certain jurors make up their minds to sentence a suspect to death even before the suspect's guilt is determined.

Before today's hearing, Mitchell told us:

In death penalty cases it is extremely difficult if not impossible to obtain the type of jury that the U.S. Supreme Court ordered in Furman vs Georiga (1972).

Mitchell added:

It's virtually impossible to get beyond the arbriarty and capricious nature that we find in death cases. It isn't anything bad to say about people. It's such an emotional issue. We have yet to devise a system in this country, so we can have a death penalty, and at the same time avoid people's emotions and feelings and the arbitrary and capricious nature of it.

Mitchell believes state legislators, pursuant to the 8th Amendment to the Constitution, are the primary arbiter of whether or not the death penalty is cruel and unusual punishment, and when the repealed capital punishment it should apply to everyone even if there crime occurred before the law takes affect.

District Attorney Kari Brandenburg told us she disagrees. Brandenburg says legislators replaced the death penalty with life sentences without the possibility of parole, but that Astoraga would not face that because his crime occurred three years ago. She's concerned the Astorga could get the old life sentence which is only 30 years.

In a telephone interview Brandenburg said:

We were the first jurisdiction to cross examine the sociologists who completed the Capital Jury Projected. We poked a lot of holes in the findings because they don't relate to New Mexico's different cultural values and orientation.

Brandenburg told 770KKOB:

If you're attacking jurors in a death penalty case you're really attacking the jury system as a whole.

It's unclear how long it will take for the Supreme Court to rule on the constitutional questions. Brandenburg says if they make a quick decision Astorga could face trial this year.

Pouncing on Criminals: District Attorney Kari Brandenburg Makes A Compelling Argument for a 3rd Term.

The 2nd Judicial District Attorney, Democrat Kari Brandenburg, sailed to election victories in 2000 and 2004. This year, despite a coordinated attack by a serious Republican opponent, Brandenburg is making the case for re-election.

The District Attorney told us her office seeks justice and applies the law equally to everyone while developing partnerships with law enforcement, the courts, and attorneys.

Brandenburg has received the endorsement of all the top law enforcement associations, including the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Deputies Association, The Chicano Police Officer's Association and the APOA.

Take a moment to listen to her speak about her qualifications, program successes and goals for a third term here.



During the interview, Brandenburg explains her Early Case Resolution program and how it is holding criminals immediately accountable, the mether initiative, and her office's felony DWI conviction rate. Brandenburg says she's got a 95% conviction rate in Felony DWI cases and the lowest dismissal rate in the state.

Brandenburg, who supports the death penalty, also talks about her victory, earlier this year, in district court, against the Capital Jury Project. That group tried to get the death penalty thrown out of consideration in accused deputy killer Michael Paul Astoraga's case. The matter is now being appealed to the state's Supreme Court.

Since becoming district attorney in Bernalillo County Brandenburg says she's developed programs and partnership with law enforcement agencies including an Auto Theft Task Force. the courts and defense attorneys. She's proud of the $6.2 million in grant money awarded to her office, but say's if she's re-elected she'll go back to Santa Fe in January (during the legislature) to get even more resources for her busy office.

Brandenburg also tells us why she believes her office, and the court, made the right decision in offering a controversial plea deal to former Marine Elton John Richard.

Finally Brandenburg speaks out on the alleged voter registration fraud and her involvement in referring some cases directly to former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias.