Justice in the Rough – As a border town becomes a murder capital, Mexico pushes for dramatic rule-of-law changes From: abajournal.com

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The recent spate of killings in Mexico, particularly along the border region, is well documented by the media.  How the Mexican government is trying to change its culture around the police, courts and the rule of law to deal with the problem is lesser known.  A story in the July 2009 issue of the ABA Journal, “Justice in the Rough,” by Allen Pusey, documents the challenge of changing a legal system while narco-violence wreaks havoc on the safety of ordinary citizens as well as their trust in Mexican police, courts and the legal system in general.

Recent changes in the Mexican constitution, which are now being implemented state-by-state, bring rights that Americans take for granted, including the presumption of innocence.  The former system all but forbade plea bargains by prosecutors, but now encourages alternatives to trial.  These changes represent a major commitment to the rule of law, according to a law professor from Mexico quoted in the story.  Unlike the United States, citizens do not turn to police for protection, nor to the courts for justice.  With this long-standing distrust of the legal system, Pusey raises legitimate concerns whether changing the system can earn citizen respect for the law.

Lawyers on both sides of the Rio Grande as well as law professors and members of the El Paso Bar Association have been active in the reform efforts.  It’s an uphill climb according to the article, because Mexico has “no jury trial, no grand jury, no case law, no limit on the ability of police to stop and frisk pedestrians, and no bail for defendants charged with crimes more serious than misdemeanors.”  Nonetheless there is cautious optimism among legal leaders and scholars that the Mexican system of justice will be reformed with the efforts now taking place.

The genesis of the story came from Pusey’s time in Texas.  Managing editor of the ABA Journal since April 2007, he spent nearly 30 years before then in Texas as an investigative reporter, primarily for the Dallas Morning News.  Following a tour of duty in Viet Nam and a stint at Fort Bliss, he began his journalism career at the El Paso Times.  He lived along the Mexican border for eight years, and returned from time to time to write about issues that had bilateral impact—immigration, pollution, drug trafficking and the Mexican financial crisis of 1982.  In 1985, he was the first correspondent on the ground in Mexico City reporting on the earthquake that killed 10,000.

Now in Illinois, some 1500 miles away, these issues continue to intrigue him.  The Juarez killings piece evolved because “I went down there expecting to do a story about violence and the breakdown of the rule of law.  What I realized was that there had been no rule of law, only a European-themed facsimile that had long been twisted by cynicism and corruption.”  As he dug in he realized, “What was taking place, beneath all the dead bodies, was a very real attempt to establish a credible and transparent system where none had been before. It will be slow. It is already painful. It’s been side-tracked by the violence, but at least the attempt to change things demonstrates that something was very, very wrong.”