Edward 1

Edward Huang
Mr. Richmond
Social Justice & Literature
7 March 2017
Advocate for Reform: The Problem
For years, Mexicos criminal justice system has been dysfunctional
and adjudications are never made, and even the ones that are made are
inaccurate. In 2013, the systems functionality hit a new low with multiple
news corporations reporting a shocking statistic about Mexican murder
cases from the year before. Report after report corroborated that 98% of
murder cases were unsolved in Mexico. To make sense of this statistic, the
recent operating of the Mexican criminal justice system in 2010 must be
understood.
Seven years ago, leaving crimes unsolved in general were not
uncommon in Mexico. In fact, leaving criminals on the run were not
uncommon either. A PBS film by Roberto Hernndez and Layda Negrete
named Presumed Guilty created in 2010 reported that less than 2% of
criminals were caught by the police. In addition, the documentary,
providing the answers to everything regarding the lack of adjudication,
showed what was actually happening in Mexico.
When a crime happens, the person who reports the crime is asked
to pay for the crime to be solved. In almost all cases, no one is willing to
spend their own money to get a case solved. As a result, many crimes are
left unreported, since if it is reported, it basically means that the person
who reports will lose money. This is a fundamental flaw that undermines
the whole purpose of the Mexican criminal justice system itself, and also
partly helps to explain why there is hardly any adjudication.
In addition, there are major flaws with the rulings that the Mexicos
criminal justice system does make, making those rulings inaccurate. One
example is the identity of the actual criminal. In many cases, the capture
of suspects is baseless, meaning there are no DNA tests to verify that the
suspect caught is the real suspect. In addition, the local police are judged
by how many suspects they capture, but not by how accurate, only
 Edward 2

furthering the gap that the suspect captured is actually an innocent

person. The film, Presumed Guilty, estimates that in nine out of ten cases,
suspects captured have no scientific backup to verify they were the real
suspect. A second example is that during the small amount of trials that
due occur, there is no jury. The final decision, which could be biased and
be a slight mistake, is made by the judge only. If there were a jury present,
bias as well as personal mistakes by the judge could be diminished.
Recently, these issues have been of intense conversation in the Mexican
government.
Actually, back in 2008, changes were proposed to the criminal
justice system, but they were not implemented across all of Mexico until
2016. The main change to the system was that the former written-based
system would transition to a newer oral-based system. This meant that
adjudications would no longer mostly be made from written evidence such
as written statements and written opinions from experts. Adjudications
would now rely more orally, with testimonies and arguments being made.
Since then, Mexico has made progress in diminishing the lack of
adjudications. A study by the Rand Corporation reported that in certain
cities, crime reporting, and the probability of an investigation being
started on a case has increased. In another study led by UCLA professor
Mximo Langer, it was reported that by November 1, 2016, 76.9% of
cases were adjudicated, a remarkable increase from four years before.
The Mexico criminal justice system has definitely taken a step in the right
direction.
Although obvious improvements have been made to increase the
amount of cases that are solved, there still seem to be issues with the
accuracy of the adjudications. In the same UCLA study mentioned from
before, it mentioned that there was no oversight from police
investigations in 61.5% of cases. In addition, in 76.9% of cases, defense
attorneys did not provide anything to help and defend the defendant. This
points to the fact that many defendants could be wrongly convicted. Also,
the fact that in 86.2% of cases, no appeal was filed for the convicted only
makes the situation worse. While the adversarial system provides an
 Edward 3

expeditious response to cases, it presents weaknesses in the quality and

oversight of police investigations, and the extent to which it respects
defendants rights, says the lead professor of the UCLA study.
The inaccuracy of adjudications in Mexico are still a problem today.
Many are found to be guilty when in fact they are not, and this is a serious
issue that needs to be dealt with. The suspected individuals must be given
the real justice they deserve and always will deserve. In response to this
problem, another reform must be implemented about the suspected
inaccuracy of adjudications made by the criminal justice system of Mexico.