One is an antiquated court system here in which there are no oral trials and written documents and procedures are long.

I mean criminal trials are oral trials where the evidence is given orally so that the witnesses can be cross- examined under a and be judged by the tribunal of fact.

The courts had been set up to administer a new penal code, unveiled on Sept. 7, in which traditional written trials were to be replaced by public oral trials for criminal cases.

Mexico Appleseed is part of a coalition that successfully reformed the criminal trial system in Mexico, to provide for oral trials rather than to rely only on a written record without oral testimony, or to give the defendant the opportunity to appear in court.

In 2008, president Calderón proposed a major reform of the judicial system, which was approved by the Congress of the Union, which included oral trials, the presumption of innocence for defendants, the authority of local police to investigate crime-until then a prerogative of special police units-and several other changes intended to speed up trials.