Pubdate: Wed, 02 Jan 2008
Source: Arizona Republic (Phoenix, AZ)
Copyright: 2008 The Arizona Republic
Contact:  http://www.arizonarepublic.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/24
Author: Chris Hawley and Sergio Solache, Mexico City Bureau

MEXICO AIMS TO FIX TRIAL SYSTEM

Experts: Secretive Process Open to Corruption, abuse

MEXICO CITY - The wheels of justice were grinding slowly at the 38th
Criminal Court in Mexico City.

In a courtroom that looked like a police squad room, defense lawyer
Enrique Sepulveda was deposing a robbery witness at a glacial pace.
There was no judge, no jury, no spectators - just a desk, a court
clerk and a barred window where Sepulveda's client strained to hear
what was going on.

This is justice in Mexico: a slow, secretive process that many experts
say breeds corruption, encourages human-rights abuses and undermines
Mexicans' faith in the rule of law.

Now, lawmakers are working on a sweeping overhaul of Mexico's courts,
a reform that would introduce U.S.-style "oral trials," guarantee the
presumption of innocence and give new investigative powers to police.
The United States is hoping the changes will help Mexico rein in drug
lords and reduce a backlog of cases that is clogging Mexican prisons.

"This changes everything, right down to the very culture of justice,"
said Raul Guerrero, director of the criminal-law division at the
Mexican Bar Association.

Under Mexico's current system, trials are waged through a slow
exchange of written briefs. Court clerks type up witnesses' testimony.
Then, when everything is on paper, a judge reads through the file and
issues a verdict. A misdemeanor trial that would take a week in the
United States can drag on for months.

A Manual System

In the 38th Court one recent afternoon, Sepulveda sat in a chair
before the desk of court clerk Monica Camargo. Witness Pedro Bastida
sat next to him, but the two men were prohibited from speaking
directly to each other.

"When you were in the police station, where did you see the guys with
the carts?" Sepulveda said to Camargo, trying to lay the groundwork
for a coercion defense.

Camargo typed furiously in her computer, mulled whether the question
was legally allowable and then turned to the witness.

"Where were you in the police station when you saw the men with the
carts?" she asked.

"In the back part," Bastida said.

Camargo typed his answer and nodded to Sepulveda for the next
question.

"Which back part are you talking about?" Sepulveda
said.

More typing. Another pause.

"Which back part do you mean?" Camargo asked Bastida.

And so it went, with Camargo filtering and repeating every question.
The entire trial would probably take three months, Sepulveda said.

The proposed legal reforms are being pushed by President Felipe
Calderon, who has flooded prisons with thousands of suspects in the
past year as part of a military crackdown on drug violence. The
country's prisons have 32 percent more inmates than their theoretical
capacity, about 217,000 in all. Forty-three percent of the detainees
are awaiting trial.

A few Mexican states have been experimenting with oral trials for
minor crimes, but the proposed reform would amend the constitution to
allow them nationwide. It would stipulate that suspects are innocent
until proved guilty and would guarantee that they are defended by
lawyers instead of less-qualified bureaucrats.

Changes In The Works

Mexico's Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of Congress, passed the
bill on Dec. 12 by a 366-53 vote with eight abstentions, and the
Senate passed the bill with minor changes the next day. The two houses
will have to work out a compromise bill when Congress reconvenes in
February.

After that, 16 of Mexico's 31 states must approve the constitutional
changes before they become law.

The bill does not call for jury trials, meaning a judge would still
deliver the final verdict. It also does not explain how trials are to
be conducted, or assign money for equipping courtrooms with basic
tools like witness stands, tables, easels, lecterns, judges' benches
and seating for spectators. Currently, Mexican courts are simply rooms
full of desks, file cabinets and computers.

The Bush administration has pledged millions of dollars toward
modernizing Mexico's justice system as part of the Merida Initiative,
a proposed $1.4 billion anti-drug aid package for Mexico. But most of
that aid would go toward computer systems for prosecutors,
investigative equipment and training.

The judicial reform would also give police more power and allow
authorities to hold organized-crime suspects for 80 days without
filing formal charges, something that is already routinely done,
despite being illegal. Some opposition lawmakers worry the new law
will lead to rights abuses.

However, proponents of the measure say the new openness of trials will
keep police abuses in check.

"Sure there are risks, but it's like using a sharp knife instead of a
dull one to cut a turkey," said Gerardo Laveaga, a professor at the
National Institute of Criminal Justice. "You need a sharp tool to
carry out justice."
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MAP posted-by: Steve Heath