Opinion ID: 891683
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: The Extraordinary Circumstances of This Case Called for the Exercise of This Court's Original Writ Jurisdiction.

Text: {46} The arrests, convictions, and continued detentions of Petitioners were a clear and continuing abuse of judicial power that called for this Court's exercise of our original writ jurisdiction. Criminal contempt convictions may be routinely reviewed on appeal for arbitrariness and abuse of discretion. Case, 103 N.M. at 503, 709 P.2d at 672. But despite the technical availability of an ordinary appeal, this Court has long recognized that our superintending control jurisdiction under Article VI, Section 3 of the New Mexico Constitution will be exercised if the remedy by appeal is wholly or substantially inadequate, or if the exercise thereof will prevent irreparable mischief, great, extraordinary or exceptional hardship, costly delays, or unusual burdens in the form of expenses. State ex rel. DuBois v. Ryan, 85 N.M. 575, 577, 514 P.2d 851, 853 (1973); see also State ex rel. N.M. Press Ass'n v. Kaufman, 98 N.M. 261, 265, 268, 648 P.2d 300, 304, 307 (1982) (granting Article VI, Section 3 writ of prohibition where a district court's order limiting media coverage of a trial could not be justified as a valid exercise of judicial power under any legal theory). {47} Given the extraordinary request for immediate judicial relief presented to us in this case by thirty-two people jailed indefinitely without any semblance of due process, for this Court to have remained idle, waiting for routine appellate processes to have worked their course, would have seriously compounded the ongoing grave injustice being committed by a court subject to our superintending control. We therefore granted the requested emergency relief.