Supreme Court Grants New Trials to Five Indigenous Defendants For Violations of Due Process Jesus Aranda - La Jornada
go to original January 31, 2013

The first chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) granted amparo para efectos to five indigenous defendants held for various crimes (murder, attempted rape and drug crimes) in order that a circuit court might resolve their legal status, leaving aside violations to their rights committed during the proceedings against them.

By a majority of three votes (José Ramón Cossío, Jorge Pardo Rebolledo and Alfredo Gutiérrez Ortiz Mena), the highest court ruled yesterday that the violations perpetrated against the plaintiffs were not sufficient to release them immediately. Justices Olga Sánchez Cordero and Arturo Zaldívar ruled for amparo liso y llano.

MV Note: Amparo is the legal term given to a protective order, or injunction. In this case, the justices addressed two classes of amparo:

• Protective order for effects (amparo para efectos) is applied when a piece of evidence is incorrectly assessed, a law is incorrectly applied, or due process is violated, thus resulting in a flawed verdict; the court that handed down the sentence is instructed to re-try the case, apply the correct criteria and issue a new judgment. There is no jury system in Mexico; instead, judges try cases.

• Protective order free and clear (amparo liso y llano) is applied when violations of the judicial process are so onerous that the case cannot be re-tried, and the verdict is annulled; the case is not re-opened, and the defendant is immediately released.

After rulings on their petitions were delayed twice, Manuel López Gómez, Celestino Garay Candia, Eloy García Reyes, Nicholás Gómez Santiz and Joel Mancilla Vázquez from the states of Guerrero and Chiapas, were beneficiaries because in the criminal trials against them, they did not have the proper guarantees indicated by the Constitution to take into account their economic situation and social vulnerability.

Despite that there was no agreement on the effects of the judgment, the justices comprehensively analyzed the system with relation to the indigenous and adopted a set of criteria that guarantee full access to prompt, expeditious and impartial justice; that is, that the judge might take into account the specific situation of the accused, if he speaks Spanish or not, his economic situation, as well as analyzing each case by taking into account the 'uses and customs' with respect to the criminal codes on which the charges are based.

MV Note: Enshrined in Article Two of Mexico's Constitution are the principles of Uses and Customs, under which indigenous communities may practice self-government.

See Spanish original

Posted by Jane Brundage at Mexico Voices

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