Open Trials Deadline Reached in Mexico After Years-Long Justice Reforms The Associated Press
go to original June 18, 2016

Mexico implements new justice reforms (Al Jazeera English)

It would have seemed routine in many places: A defendant accused of illegally possessing a gun sat across a gleaming courtroom from the judge who accepted his guilty plea and would pronounce his sentence.

For Mexico, though, it was a remarkable change from a century-old judicial system of paper-shuffling court cases in which defendants rarely actually testified before the judge ruling on their fate from within a cramped, bureaucrat’s office. Starting today, the open, oral trial will be the norm nationwide as part of a sweeping judicial reform.

Listen: Mexico hits deadline to overhaul justice system (KJZZ)

...The oral hearings are the final stage of reforms passed in 2008 that seek to change every step of the criminal justice system, from the time police arrive at a crime scene to the moment a sentence is imposed.

Some have expressed concern that until Mexico’s notoriously corrupt and poorly trained police are capable of operating in the new system, cases could be scuttled by their errors. Reliance on confessions — often obtained through torture — as the ultimate piece of evidence evaporates under the new rules. Now a confession is just one piece of evidence and worthless unless made before a judge.

There are estimates that only one or two of every 100 crimes committed leads to a sentence in Mexico. The reforms aim to reduce impunity for lawbreakers and increase the public’s faith in legal institutions.

...Some 300,000 police officers have undergone training for their roles in the new system, learning how to better preserve a crime scene and how to testify in court. The same goes for lawyers and judges.

Read the rest at Gulf News Mexico

Related: Mexico's New Criminal Justice System Begins to Operate: Five Key Items Still Pending (Mexico Voices)

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