Move to Recast Mexico's Criminal Justice Process Brings Both Improvements and Challenges Juan Montes - The Wall Street Journal
go to original June 2, 2016

Policemen learned how to make arrests while respecting detainees’ rights at the police university of Chilpancingo, Mexico, last month. (Juan Montes/The Wall Street Journal)

On a recent day, hundreds of construction workers laid bricks in a fevered rush to finish a new courthouse in this violence-torn city. Their work was just part of Mexico’s broad and daunting effort to build a new criminal justice system.

Starting this week, every criminal case in Acapulco will be heard using a new judicial process based on U.S.-style oral trials. It replaces a centuries-old inquisitorial system that effectively presumes defendants are guilty and hands down sentences on the basis of written evidence reviewed behind closed doors.

Within two weeks of its rollout here, the new system is supposed to operate across the entire country.

“This is the biggest change in Mexico’s judicial system in recent history - a cultural change without precedent,” said María de los Ángeles Fromow, the Interior Ministry official who has led the implementation of the new system across the country.

Supporters say the changes will create a more transparent and accountable system where defense lawyers and prosecutors confront each other in public before a judge or panel of judges.

Critics say parts of the country aren’t ready for the changes and criminals could avoid punishment in the short term, especially in places like this Pacific coastal city widely considered Mexico’s murder capital.

The changes are far-reaching. In a country where police have long been accused of using torture to extract confessions from suspects, confessions will only be considered valid if made before a judge and backed by forensic evidence. Prosecutors will no longer be able to rely on the probative value the old system granted to police investigations, as their evidence will be considered on equal footing with that of the defense.

Read the rest at The Wall Street Journal

Related: Mexico Violence: Rule by Lynchings Instead of Rule of Law (Mexico Voices)

Related: Mexico Public Security: Congress Creating "Mixed Police" System Instead of Unified Command (Mexico Voices)

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