Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 19.pdf/497

 464

THE GREEN BAG

and the latter is best explained by the former. It may be seen how well or other wise our institution of the grand jury is left out of the civil law system. The methods of investigating accusations of crime, of securing and educing evidence, of sifting the truth of testimony, and the safe guards which the accused has in his fight for liberty, as well as the intelligent pro tection of the public, all as worked out for long centuries by the wisdom of the civil jurists, may here be comprehended, even in this rough and limited sketch. In the great chapter on the " Rights of Man," in the admirable Political Constitu tion of the Mexican Republic, of 1857, it is thus ordained in Article 20, which may be profitably compared with the first amend ments of our Federal Constitution, and with corresponding provisions of the bills of rights of our state constitutions :

trials in courts of different grades). No one can be tried twice for the same crime, whether he be acquitted or condemned at the trial. . . ."

Following these fundamental provisions, as enlightened as to be found in any con stitution, I will trace, though with rapid and incomplete strokes, the main ground work of Mexican criminal procedure in volved in the instruction and prosecution of this cause cSltbre, skimming through the detailed provisions of the Code of Penal Procedure; making use, so far as my con densed synopsis will admit, of the very words of the text, as I freely translate it into typewriter English. The initiation or institution of a criminal process under the Mexican Code, and gener ally in the civil law systems, by what is called its "Instruction," is thus defined by the Code: "The Instruction comprehends "Art. 20. In every criminal trial the all the diligencias (steps, proceedings) taken accused shall have the following guaranties : for the proving of crimes and investigations "1 . He shall be advised of the cause of the of the persons who, in whatever degree, may proceeding and the name of the accuser, if be responsible for them, from the com mencement of the process until the rendi there be any. "2. His preliminary statement shall be tion of the final sentence." The law taken within 48 hours counted from the authorizes only two modes of instituting an time he shall be at the disposition of his instruction, the one ex officio and the other upon the necessary complaint; general judge. "3. He shall be faced with the witnesses1 inquests and secret or anonymous charges are prohibited. Every person injured by a who testify against him. crime and every person who has been an "4. He shall be furnished with such infor mation appearing in the process as he may eye witness to the commission of a crime which should be prosecuted ex officio, is need, in order to prepare his defense. "5. He shall be heard in his defense by under the obligation to bring it to the himself, or by a person in his confidence, or knowledge of the competent judge, of some by both, according to his wish. In the representative of the public ministry, or of event that he has no one to defend him, a any agent of the judicial police, which state ment of the facts should be in writing and list of the ex officio defenders shall be pre sented to him, for him to select him or signed by the person making the charge, who shall only be liable for a libel in the those whom he wishes. . . . "Art. 24. No criminal case can have event that the corpus delicti cannot be more than three instances (or successive proven or there was no just cause to sup pose its existence. The complainant has 1 Hereafter note the literal interpretation given the right to present in the judicial investi gation the proofs which he deems proper in practice to this precept.