Mock trials; real justice
Mexico's criminal court system is making its way slowly from an inquisitorial one to an adversarial one. Everyone needs practice.What assumptions about justice and equality are behind the change? Upon what assumptions is the older inquisitorial system based?
In Mexico, Rehearsing to Inject Drama Into the Courtroom
[T]ough questioning may seem the bedrock of courtroom justice in the United States, but here in Mexico… trials are decided by judges and rely almost entirely on written briefs…See also: Courtroom telenovela?
Four years ago, Mexico’s Congress adopted a legal overhaul that will enable prosecutors and defense lawyers to present evidence and question witnesses in open court, a practice that already exists in a few states but whose rollout is scheduled to be completed nationwide by 2016.
More open trials, the theory goes, will increase due process and accountability in a country where the much-publicized arrests of cartel bosses are common, but the actual convictions of criminals are not…
Discussing cross-examination
Police corruption is rife. Investigations are often shoddy, and mass jailbreaks common. And while Mexico’s effort to turn around its justice system is a slow, long-term process that may not pay dividends for years, analysts on both sides of the border say it is vital nonetheless.
These reforms “are key,” said José Antonio Caballero Juárez, an investigator at CIDE, a Mexico City research institute. “They will give transparency to a process that is at the moment very opaque.”…
Judges, American officials have said, have been among the most resistant to the change because in the current system, which dates to the 19th century, their determinations face little scrutiny. Prosecutors and defense lawyers submit written reports and documents to a judge who reviews them privately and issues a verdict, often with little explanation. Proceedings are conducted almost entirely behind closed doors, leading to worry about the possibility of bribery…
Mexico has 31 states and one federal district, but only a handful of them have fully adopted the oral trial system. Prosecutors, lawyers and judges have to undergo training, but legal experts say that it is mostly a lack of willingness from the government that has delayed the transition…
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Labels: judiciary, Mexico, rule-of-law
posted by Ken Wedding @ 6:00 AM
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