Wednesday, September 16, 2009

An Encouraging Trend?

Jacinta Francisco Marcial, an indigenous resident of Querétaro, was released after serving three years of a 21-year sentence for kidnapping three AFI agents. The PGR ordered her release due to the existence of "reasonable doubt" about her guilt. This comes a few weeks after the Supreme Court ordered the release of dozens of indigenous Chiapans for their alleged role in a 1997 massacre, which was demonstrated to be nonexistent. In both cases, the fact that people were railroaded into prison on false charges to start off with remains scandalous, but hopefully the practice of owning up to the errors and releasing those punished by them will spread. 

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