ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) The New Mexico Supreme Court has ordered the release of a murder defendant pending trial. The Albuquerque Journal reports that the high court ordered the release of 22-year-old Walter Brown. Brown is charged with felony murder and second degree murder in the May 13, 2011, fatal stabbing of James Moore in Bernalillo County.
The Supreme Court heard arguments in Brown's case in February, with some justices questioning whether a trial judge impossibly high for Brown to meet. A judge had set Brown's cash bond at $250,000, and Brown has been in jail almost three years while awaiting trial. Justice Richard Bosson said there will be an opinion issued on bail for the first time since the 1970s.
The New Mexico Constitution presumption that defendants are bailable.
