Abstract

Many Anglo-American lawyers believe that trial by jury in criminal cases is a monopoly possessed by those nations following the English system. However, it has been noted elsewhere that various forms of lay juries for criminal cases are in use in France and Sweden (among other countries), and that they were utilized for a time in Spain under the Republican Government.

Mexico has provided for a rather limited use of the jury system in its Federal Constitution, its Federal Code of Penal Procedure, which governs the procedures for federal crimes (e.g., robbing of the mails, crimes against the railroads, etc.) and its Code of Penal Procedures for the Federal District (Mexico City) and the Federal Territories. In addition, some of the States of the Republic have provided for jury trials in a manner which is very similar to the federal model. It is the purpose of this article to discuss the constitutional sources for the Mexican jury, and the procedure before this jury as delineated in the Code of Penal Procedure for the Federal District and Federal Territories as being representative of the Mexican system.

The remainder of this article will show that the Mexican law provides for a system whereby a number of factual questions are answered by the jury in the form of a special verdict which is somewhat reminiscent of the form of special verdicts advocated by leading authors for use in the United States for civil trials. In addition, some novel ideas are presented dealing with the problem of the juror who refuses to vote one way or the other.

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