08 March 2011

Manual developed for Mexico City prosecutors

Thirty-two experts produced a 1,698-page booklet distributed to more than 4,000 employees of the city Attorney General's Office

Mexico Weekly / April 8, 2011

The Mexico City Attorney General’s Office will distribute a manual to improve the efficiency of thousands of employees.

Officials say the 1,698-page text includes comprehensive information on policies and procedures, and it will be given to more than 4,000 employees.

The manual contains information on constitutional and criminal law, criminal policies, criminology and investigation methodologies for police officers, forensic scientists and other employees, Reforma reported Friday.

The text also includes information on criminal proceedings, injunctions, human rights, justice for children and how to conduct interviews and interrogations.

Capital Attorney General Miguel Ángel Mancera said 32 experts had developed the manual. It was created amid public requests for more professional and competent prosecutors, Mancera said.

'Unprecedented'

Miguel Ontiveros, academic director of the National Institute of Criminal Sciences, said the manual is unprecedented, Reforma reported.

“Never in the history of attorney general’s offices anywhere in the country has there been such a manual … this fills a historic shortcoming,” he said.

The manual comes weeks after the release of “Presunto Culpable” (“Presumed Guilty”), a hit documentary that exposes an unjust and disorganized criminal justice system in the capital.

The film tells the story of Antonio Zúñiga, a Mexico City resident who in late 2005 was sentenced to 20 years in prison for a homicide he did not commit. The primary evidence in the case was the flimsy and contradictory testimony of a single witness.

After spending more than two years in prison, Zúñiga was freed after his case attracted the attention of the film’s producers (who are also attorneys).

The manual also comes as Mexico's incoming attorney general promises to remove incompetent and corrupt officials.

Marisela Morales, whose appointment to become the first female attorney general in Mexico’s history was ratified by senators on Thursday, has promised to “transform” the Attorney General's Office by making its staff more professional.

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