'Functioning of New Federal Criminal Justice System in 2016 Guaranteed,' Says Magistrate Alfred Mendez - La Jornada
go to original November 16, 2015

Member of the Federal Judiciary Council, José Guadalupe Tafoya (Fuerza.com.mx)

By June 18, 2016, the constitutionally mandated date for putting into effect the country's new criminal justice system for federal crimes, the Federal Judiciary will have at least 205 judges specialized in this area; hence, its functioning, including oral trials, is guaranteed, declared José Guadalupe Tafoya, one of the seven members of the Federal Judiciary Council (CJF, Spanish acronym).

Nonetheless, the magistrate, who has more than two decades of judicial experience, throws out the following warning to those responsible for the country's police forces, as well as Attorney General Arely Gómez and federal prosecutors:

"(The prosecutors) should only bring to judicial proceeding ['trial'] 30 percent [of cases] — and that's high — of the criminal conflicts that are generated, because if it were otherwise, we would grind to a halt and lose all the strength of applying the resources that we are investing."

In an interview with La Jornada, Tafoya asserted that "a great responsibility rests" on the prosecutors and federal, state and municipal police agencies, since in their hands is making proper use of the tools that this new system of justice offers, such that 70 to 80 percent of criminal cases are to be resolved through the so-called alternative means of resolving disputes.

Tafoya indicated that the weak link in this new system is not whether we have many or few federal judges trained in procedures of the adversarial system. Instead, he explained,

"the secret is that only solid, truly grave cases are to be brought before the judge — cases where the police have paid attention to the chain of custody, and where the evidence is conclusive for demonstrating a person's guilt."

Read the rest at Mexico Voices

Mexico Voices is a blogging endeavor aimed at raising the awareness of U.S. citizens regarding the destructive impact of the U.S. economic policy and the War on Drugs on Mexico — on its people, their economic and physical security and their human rights, on the nation’s dysfunctional justice system, and on the rule of law and Mexico’s fragile democracy. Visit the website at MexicoVoices.blogspot.mx

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