Habeas (Post Conviction) Unit, Law Offices of the Public Defender (New Mexico)

The New Mexico Law Offices of the Public Defender runs a statewide Habeas Unit that represents clients in post-conviction matters, which it divides into conviction cases and confinement cases. Conviction claims may include actual innocence, ineffective assistance of counsel and illegal sentences; confinement claims may include disciplinary actions resulting in lost good time, failure to award lump sum credits and parole issues. The page explains the procedure under Rule 5-802: the client must file the habeas petition pro se with the court, which then forwards it to the LOPD habeas unit for review; the unit meets biweekly, submits a pre-appointment review to the court within 45 days of the pro se filing, and if counsel is appointed the assigned habeas attorney has 90 days to file an amended petition, with the State then having 120 days to respond. It warns that a case typically will not reach a hearing for about a year. A downloadable Habeas Corpus Petition Packet is provided. Habeas Division: 505 Marquette NW Suite 120, Albuquerque; (505) 835-1528. The Appellate Division is listed at 1422 Paseo de Peralta Building 1, Santa Fe; (505) 395-2890.