Mississippi hosts Mexican prosecutor and law enforcement training

JACKSON, Miss. – Mexican prosecutors and investigators are honing their skills in a Mississippi courtroom this week in a training program provided by the national Attorney General Alliance.

Sixteen prosecutors and staff from Durango state and Colima state and the Attorney General of Colima state are spending a week with attorneys from the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office and the Attorney General Alliance. 

Participants spent Tuesday, Nov. 19, listening to coaching from the Attorney General’s Office prosecutors and criminal appellate attorneys as well as AGA trainers. Mexican attorneys began a mock trial on Wednesday, Nov. 20, in the En Banc Courtroom of the Mississippi Supreme Court in Jackson. Approximately 1,300 prosecutors and staff across Mexico were invited to view the live streamed proceeding. The mock trial of a homicide prosecution will continue on Thursday, Nov. 21, at the Supreme Court.

“We Teach Prosecutors”

“We teach prosecutors, investigators, forensic experts and criminal analysts to better investigate and prosecute crime,” said Frank Collins, Chief Financial Officer and  Director of the Alliance Partnership Mexico for the Attorney General Alliance. “We are trying to help Mexico have a better law enforcement system.”

Attorneys General in Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Kansas and Texas recently hosted similar programs, said Selene Collins, Administrative Director of the Alliance Partnership of the Attorney General Alliance.

Attorney General Lynn Fitch invited the Attorney General Alliance to Mississippi.

“It was an honor to host prosecutors from Mexico’s Colima and Durango states in Mississippi this week for a mock trial as they explore these improvements to Mexico’s criminal justice system,” said Attorney General Fitch. “This meeting offers a rare opportunity to share our best legal practices and engage in a partnership between the United States and Mexico that promotes better safety and security for us all.”

Oral advocacy is relatively new in Mexico

The concept of oral advocacy, with prosecutors questioning live witnesses in a courtroom before a judge, is relatively new in Mexico. In 2008, federal constitutional reforms in Mexico gave Mexican states until 2016 to implement oral adversarial criminal trials. The system does not include juries. The former system was a paper system that relied on written inquiries and legal arguments with transcribed depositions submitted to a judge for decision.

All of the questioning by prosecutors and defense attorneys and witness testimony during the mock trial was in Spanish. Three interpreters took turns  providing simultaneous translation to the English speaking participants via headsets.

During a break in the mock trial, Mississippi Supreme Court Justice David Ishee of Gulfport gave the participants an overview of the state’s judicial system, explaining the roles of Mississippi’s Justice, Municipal, County, Chancery and Circuit courts, the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court. Last month Judge Ishee marked his 20^th year as an appellate judge, having served first on the Court of Appeals, then the Supreme Court. As a former prosecutor,  defense lawyer and municipal judge, he joked that he’s sat in every chair in a courtroom except that of a criminal defendant.

Pros and cons of an elective versus appointive systems

Participants quizzed Justice Ishee about the pros and cons of an elective versus an appointive system of selecting judges; about political party involvement, politics and fundraising in an elective system; and about background and training for judges. In Mexico, lawyers may pursue a judicial career track without first practicing law.

Justice Ishee said there are pros and cons to both systems of judicial selection. He was appointed then elected to both the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court.

Justice Ishee said that practicing law and serving as a prosecutor provides good training and perspective for future judges. “Diversity is import. I’ve been a prosecutor and a defense lawyer,” he said. “Open your minds to the idea that lawyers moving on to become judges is a good thing.” 

Frank Collins said, “We are not here to tell you it’s good or bad to elect.” Rather, there is an opportunity to see how the system works.

Best Practices

The program aims to teach best practices in an oral advocacy system.

Justice Ishee said, “It was an honor to be here with you. Thank you very much and welcome to Mississippi.”

Judges for the mock trial included Arizona Judge María Elena Cruz of the Court of Appeals, who has worked with the training program for many years;  Mississippi Deputy Attorney General Lindsay Cranford; Director of the Attorney General’s Public Integrity Division Brandon Ogburn; and Director of the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit Marty Miller. Coaches included Special Assistant Attorneys General Danielle Burks, Barbara Byrd, Sam Martin, Brantley Walton and Luke Williamson; and Stephanie Brown, Deputy Director of the AG’s Special Victims Unit. Other Attorney General Alliance staff instructors were Anthony Da Silva, formerly of the California Attorney General’s Office, and retired Benton County, Oregon, District Attorney John Haroldson.