Mexico Congress Seeks to Pass Long-Delayed Secondary Laws for Public, Oral Trials Mauricio Torres - CNN Mexico
go to original November 27, 2013

Five years after the Mexican Congress approved oral trials, lawmakers will begin discussing one of the key laws so they can operate throughout the country: the National Code of Criminal Procedures.

Senators discussing the issue recognize that the Legislature is late in adopting secondary laws of the 2008 penal reform that established an eight-year period within which current trials, based on written records, are to be replaced by oral and public processes.

For some lawmakers, however, it is possible to begin to move forward with the Code before the December 15 end of the regular session.

MV Note: In 2008, Mexico's Constitution was amended to require public, oral trials before a judge in criminal cases, replacing the Spanish colonial inquisitorial system in which written documents are presented to the judge by the prosecuting and defense attorneys for his/her decision in private. All states and the federal government have until 2016 to implement the changes, including changes to their criminal codes. They have been slow to do so.

Read the rest at Mexico Voices

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