Teaching Comparative Government and Politics

Friday, January 28, 2011

Judicial reform in Mexico stumbles

The change to an adversarial judicial system in Mexico is not easy or easily accepted. Here's an illustration.

Mexico shock verdict puts legal reform on trial

The trial in the murder of a 16-year-old girl... was supposed to showcase U.S.-backed reforms to Mexico's secretive justice system: Three judges, in the presence of the victim's family, the defendant and their lawyers would announce their verdict in open court.

Instead, it became a rallying cry against impunity in a country where the vast majority of crimes still are not prosecuted. The victim's mother wailed "No!" as the panel absolved defendant Sergio Barraza of murdering his live-in girlfriend, even though he had told at least half a dozen people that he killed her and described where he dumped her body…

Now, what has become known as the Rubi case has put Mexico's judicial reform on trial and has the entire country talking…

The judges, who were suspended and face impeachment, said they followed the law, which has strict standards for evidence. Mexico's old system, still in place in many parts of the country, fostered corruption and confessions extracted by torture. The now widely condemned judges say the new system failed only because underfunded and ill-trained investigators and police failed to build a case. They had to throw out what they called large amounts of circumstantial or illegally obtained evidence…

Anti-crime activists say the judges were inept and hamstrung by the reform… because it overly favors the rights of suspects…

Ironically, the openness that was meant to bury forever Mexico's dark judicial past is helping fuel the criticism. Under the old system, court records were secret and proceedings conducted on paper. Judges rarely saw defendants, accepted confessions and ordered convictions.

But in 2008, Chihuahua became the first state to implement the judicial reform, imbedded in Mexico's constitution, that more closely resembles the U.S. court system, though there are no juries. Lawyers question and cross-examine witnesses in open court, and defendants are innocent until proven guilty.

Trials are now videotaped. Judges are now subject to public scrutiny…

Judges can no longer consider confessions made without a judge, detective and the suspect's defense lawyer present. In the Rubi case, though Barraza bragged to acquaintances and police that he killed the girl, he talked without a lawyer…

The U.S., which has helped pay to train judges, prosecutors and police under the new system, plans to devote more of its $1.4 billion Merida Initiative intended to fight Mexico's drug war to legal reform…