With the inauguration of a brand new court house on Monday, February 15, Chapala looks set to lead the way in Jalisco’s effort to meet the summer deadline of implementing oral trials in Mexico.
Chapala will become the seat of Jalisco’s Fifth Judicial District and the headquarters for open trials on criminal cases arising from 14 municipalities.
District V is the eighth of the state’s 12 jurisdictions to implement the new criminal justice system, scheduled to go into effect nationwide by June 18 of this year. One of its most outstanding characteristics is the public trial, employing a adversarial system similar to that followed in the United States and Canada, with prosecutors and defense lawyers making their cases in public before a judge. Mexico’s current system largely relies on written testimony submitted to a judge who decides the case behind closed doors.
The hope is that a more transparent process will help restore the nation’s confidence in its judicial system and the rule of law.
It is unclear how many states will be able to meet the deadline, set back in 2008. At the end of last year less than one-third of Mexico’s 32 states had implemented the new system.
Chapala’s Juzgado de Control y Oralidad is a 1,072-square-meter facility built adjacent to the regional prison and justice center (CENIJURE). It comprises a courtroom for open hearings, separate rooms to house witnesses, deliberations and video conferences, a maximum security area, evidence storage space and a technology control cabin, along with restrooms and controlled entry equipped with security devices.
The court house was designed to serve 390,438 inhabitants residing in the municipalities of El Salto, Juanacatlán, Ixtlahuacán de los Membrillos, Chapala, Jocotepec, Tuxcueca, Tizapan el Alto, La Manzanilla, Concepción de Buenos Aires, Mazamitla, Teocuitatlán de Corona, Valle de Juárez, Villa Corona and Acatlán de Juárez.
The cases tried in the Chapala courtroom will ne open to citizen observers along with parties directly involved in the proceedings. No cameras, cell phones or electronic devices will be admitted inside and must be surrendered to security agents at the door for safe keeping in secured lockers.
Dignitaries present for the courthouse opening included Maria de los Angeles Fromow Rangel, technical secretary of the new justice system advisory counsel; Jalisco Attorney General Jesus Eduardo Almaguer Ramirez; Jalisco Secretary General Roberto Lopez Lara; Chapala Mayor Javier Degollado Gonzalez; and Luis Carlos Vega Pamanes, president of the Jalisco Supreme Court.
The inauguration ceremony was held in the hearing room where future oral trials will be carried out.