Throughout the day a strong undercurrent could be sensed. Could Oaxaca actually create a more efficient and expedient criminal dispute resolution model which would arrest the sweeping and arbitrary powers of the Minsterio P?blico (office of the Attorney General)? Is it realistic to even attempt to create procedures which would result in an entire crimina

A mock murder trial marked the highlight of a recent conference regarding proposed revolutionary changes to Oaxaca’s code of criminal procedure. About 4,000 lawyers, academics, bureaucrats and politicians including the governor and mayor packed two salons at Misi?n de Los ?ngeles to first hear impassioned pleas for the passage of the draft legislation and then watch as a three judge panel evaluated evidence and submissions tendered by teams of barristers for the prosecution and defense.

Oaxaca is one of a handful of Mexico’s 32 states pioneering a project intended to break down a Napoleonic inquisitorial system and replace it with the more British adversarial system as practiced in Canada and the USA. Chief Prosecutor Patricia Villanueva’s discourse was one of a number of which was peppered with phrases such as due process, procedural fairness, judicial restraint and impartiality, and advancement of the principles of democracy, human rights and presumption of innocence.

Attendees witnessed first hand how the trial of “El Tigre” would unfold. He allegedly shot his neighbour, a couple of weeks after threatening to do so upon learning that his wife had been insulted by the deceased. The only eyewitness that early morning was a gentleman who’d been drinking and smoking marijuana all night, as a result of which his senses of observation had been dulled. But the forensic evidence pointed to the accused, a former drug dealer now in rehab, as the only possible suspect, fingerprint on the pistol and gunshot residue on his right hand. He admitted to being in a struggle to quell tempers, but no more. The realism was striking, right down to The Tiger’s answer on cross-examination as to why he didn’t phone police when he heard a ruckus on the street, rather than run outside: “I couldn’t. My phone service had been cut off because I hadn’t paid the previous month’s bill.” The retort struck a familiar chord with Mexicans as the audience roared.

Throughout the day a strong undercurrent could be sensed. Could Oaxaca actually create a more efficient and expedient criminal dispute resolution model which would arrest the sweeping and arbitrary powers of the Minsterio P?blico (office of the Attorney General)? Is it realistic to even attempt to create procedures which would result in an entire criminal

Oaxaca is one of a handful of Mexico’s 32 states pioneering a project intended to break down a Napoleonic inquisitorial system and replace it with the more British adversarial system as practiced in Canada and the USA. Chief Prosecutor Patricia Villanueva’s discourse was one of a number of which was peppered with phrases such as due process, procedural fairness, judicial restraint and impartiality, and advancement of the principles of democracy, human rights and presumption of innocence.

Attendees witnessed first hand how the trial of “El Tigre” would unfold. He allegedly shot his neighbour, a couple of weeks after threatening to do so upon learning that his wife had been insulted by the deceased. The only eyewitness that early morning was a gentleman who’d been drinking and smoking marijuana all night, as a result of which his senses of observation had been dulled. But the forensic evidence pointed to the accused, a former drug dealer now in rehab, as the only possible suspect, fingerprint on the pistol and gunshot residue on his right hand. He admitted to being in a struggle to quell tempers, but no more. The realism was striking, right down to The Tiger’s answer on cross-examination as to why he didn’t phone police when he heard a ruckus on the street, rather than run outside: “I couldn’t. My phone service had been cut off because I hadn’t paid the previous month’s bill.” The retort struck a familiar chord with Mexicans as the audience roared.

Throughout the day a strong undercurrent could be sensed. Could Oaxaca actually create a more efficient and expedient criminal dispute resolution model which would arrest the sweeping and arbitrary powers of the Minsterio P?blico (office of the Attorney General)? Is it realistic to even attempt to create procedures which would result in an entire crimina

Attendees witnessed first hand how the trial of “El Tigre” would unfold. He allegedly shot his neighbour, a couple of weeks after threatening to do so upon learning that his wife had been insulted by the deceased. The only eyewitness that early morning was a gentleman who’d been drinking and smoking marijuana all night, as a result of which his senses of observation had been dulled. But the forensic evidence pointed to the accused, a former drug dealer now in rehab, as the only possible suspect, fingerprint on the pistol and gunshot residue on his right hand. He admitted to being in a struggle to quell tempers, but no more. The realism was striking, right down to The Tiger’s answer on cross-examination as to why he didn’t phone police when he heard a ruckus on the street, rather than run outside: “I couldn’t. My phone service had been cut off because I hadn’t paid the previous month’s bill.” The retort struck a familiar chord with Mexicans as the audience roared.

Throughout the day a strong undercurrent could be sensed. Could Oaxaca actually create a more efficient and expedient criminal dispute resolution model which would arrest the sweeping and arbitrary powers of the Minsterio P?blico (office of the Attorney General)? Is it realistic to even attempt to create procedures which would result in an entire crimina

Throughout the day a strong undercurrent could be sensed. Could Oaxaca actually create a more efficient and expedient criminal dispute resolution model which would arrest the sweeping and arbitrary powers of the Minsterio P?blico (office of the Attorney General)? Is it realistic to even attempt to create procedures which would result in an entire crimina

Throughout the day a strong undercurrent could be sensed. Could Oaxaca actually create a more efficient and expedient criminal dispute resolution model which would arrest the sweeping and arbitrary powers of the Minsterio P?blico (office of the Attorney General)? Is it realistic to even attempt to create procedures which would result in an entire criminal proceeding, from arrest to sentencing, concluding in 4 months as the moderator submitted would be the case, instead of the current snail’s pace practice which can keep the innocent behind bars for years pending trial? It all seemed a little overly optimistic for a stunned crowd. In response to my questioning, a local lawyer commented “it’s like something out of a movie,” while a judge simply answered “radically different.”

COMMENTARY: IS OAXACA RIPE FOR REFORM?

It took a while to sink in. Why the reticence to the dramatic changes proposed for the Mexican penal system, when civil rights groups have for years been craving major transformation towards “truth, justice and the American way?” When asked for the most important change that reform would bring to the current system, a lawyer attending the recent conference on Reform to the Superior Court of Justice’s Penal Code answered: the Ministerio P?blico (M.P.) would be stripped of its arbitrary and punitive powers which at present lack appropriate judicial sanction and supervision.

Currently, because of the command it wields, the M.P. strikes fear in the hearts of those Oaxacans not entirely on the side of righteousness. The mere allegation of wrongdoing can lead to a swift period of incarceration without a judicial finding of even a probability of guilt…not for only alleged breaches of society’s more serious standards which north of the border would result in incarceration without bail pending trial (i.e. a murder charge), but rather for the purported committing of lesser faux pas more in the nature of civil wrongs such as theft, fraud and breach of trust. If it looks like on balance you probably did it, off you go, directly to jail: do not pass go, do not collect $200.

This liberal leaning writer is not convinced that penal reform should occur prior to the advent of more basic alterations to the M