News From the Border

Providing the news from a different front but from a war that we must win as well! I recognize the poverty and desperate conditions that many Latinos live in. We, as the USA, have a responsibility to do as much as we can to reach out to aid and assist spiritually with the Gospel and naturally with training, technology and resources. But poverty gives no one the right to break the laws of another sovereign nation.

Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Mexico aims to fix slow trial system

Experts: Secretive process open to corruption, abuse

Chris Hawley and Sergio Solache
Republic Mexico City Bureau
Jan. 2, 2008 12:00 AM

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.

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.

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posted by missionaryman | 7:37 AM

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