45th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2001

RELATING TO TRIALS; AMENDING SECTION 35-8-1 NMSA 1978 (BEING LAWS 1968, CHAPTER 62, SECTION 108, AS AMENDED) TO ABOLISH THE STATUTORY RIGHT TO A JURY TRIAL IN CERTAIN CASES IN MAGISTRATE COURTS; DECLARING AN EMERGENCY.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO:

Section 1. Section 35-8-1 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1968, Chapter 62, Section 108, as amended) is amended to read:

"35-8-1. MAGISTRATE JURY--RIGHT TO TRIAL BY JURY.--[Except for contempt of the magistrate court] The right to trial by jury exists in all actions in the magistrate court [which] that are within magistrate trial jurisdiction except for:

A. contempt of the magistrate court; and

B. prosecutions of offenses or combinations of offenses for which the potential maximum aggregate penalty is imprisonment for ninety days or less."

Section 2. EMERGENCY.--It is necessary for the public peace, health and safety that this act take effect immediately.