U.S. teaches Mexico about criminal justice system

U.S. teaches Mexico about criminal justice system


Trial by jury. Innocent until proven guilty.

These concepts are part of the American lexicon. The Mexican justice system is vastly different. Officials from both countries are currently working towards a dramatic reform of the Mexican system and now Brownsville has its own connection to the program called Proyecto Diamante. As part of the U.S. Department of Justice effort, local magistrate and Cameron County District Attorney’s office prosecutor Luis V. Saenz recently traveled to Mexico City. There, he was one of several instructors teaching Mexican officials about the American justice system so they might use it as a model for their own reform.

"That’s something that they’re thirsting for, the integrity of their system," he said. "I said, ‘That’s going to come when you people start taking the witness stand and you tell the public what you did and how you did it.’" Saenz said the country aims to model its system on America, citing examples of changing to a trial by jury format and offering more transparency through building courthouses open to the public. Experts say the reformed Mexican justice system could affect the brutal cartel drug war that rages on in the country and seeps into U.S. borderlands.
[more...]