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Hazardous Duty: Assistant United States Attorney Kim Lindquist Promotes Judicial Reform in Colombia

By Martin Edwin Andersen Senior Advisor for Policy Planning in OPDAT Criminal Division Ask Assistant United States Attorney Kim Lindquist, District of Idaho, where he's been lately and you may end up slowly shaking your head or whistling low when he answers. As the ubiquitous OPDAT program director stationed in Bogot, Colombia, he's likely just in from a frontier town whose Old West character is captured by the fact that the local airport was full of drab green helicopters transporting soldiers in a decades-long war against Marxist guerrillas. Or maybe he's returned from visiting some legal outpost in Bogot's outlying barrios--places that make the Bronx's "Fort Apache" look like Club Med. Some of the cities that are part of Lindquist's turf reflect the exotic, dangerous terrain of the war on drugs and those who traffic in them--Cali, Medelln, the island of San Andrs. In a country whose violent history and corruption-tinged present is mirrored in the magical realism genre created by Gabriel Garca Mrquez, Colombia's foremost storyteller, Lindquist has worked quietly but energetically. His mission to help Colombians leave behind their current legal system characterized by its slowness, staleness, ineptitude, and lack of responsiveness for a new reality of community service and respect for fundamental rights. It is a difficult fight but one Lindquist and his Colombian allies and United States Agency for International Development sponsors are determined to win. Like most Latin American countries, Colombias legal system was founded on the Napoleonic Code and, unlike the Anglo-American system of justice, is based on the premise that the truth will most likely be found by an impartial inquisitor whose only interest is that justice is served. This Renaissance person--supposedly steeped in the law, criminal psychology, and myriad other disciplines--is called an investigating magistrate, and is roughly equivalent to a one-person jury. While conducting an investigation, this person issues subpoenas for documents and
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witnesses as well as search warrants, and directs the police in executing those warrants or performing other investigations. The result is either a criminal charge or a decision to drop the case. The magistrate's case file inevitably states the findings of fact and conclusions of law, and includes a dossier replete with witness testimony, the fruits of search warrants, scientific test results, opinions of experts, and other evidence that very often prove worthless. Frequently, this results in the acquittal of a defendant who has been incarcerated in preventative detention longer than if he or she had been sentenced to the maximum penalty for the crime charged. A 1991, Constitutional reform in Colombia required the development of a public trial, both to increase efficiency and safeguard basic rights. The new Magna Carta guaranteed the presumption of innocence until the final adjudication of guilt by a "trial" judge. Despite this, proof continued to be formally practiced in the investigation stage, with the accusation (charge) a de facto judgment of conviction. The accused, therefore, still entered the trial phase presumed guilty. "The result is a time-consuming novel, the vast majority of which is irrelevant," Lindquist notes. "Moreover, as the virtual `judgment' in the case already occurred, little if anything is left to the judges in the trial stage, and there is no meaningful public trial as required by the Constitution." The Criminal Division initiative spearheaded by OPDAT is designed to assist the Colombian Government in reducing court caseloads by increasing procedural efficiency and promoting due process through the development of public oral trials. The program, which seeks to revamp Colombia's justice system by offering instruction to more than 5,000 prosecutors by using a cadre of Colombian faculty trained by OPDAT, comes after years of U.S. funded assistance to Colombian institutions engaged in constitutional and legal reform. The Colombia project was a quantum leap, in size and scope, from the highly-successful OPDAT program in Bolivia. Where Bolivia counts a mere 300 prosecutors, Bogot alone has more than that. Lindquist is key to the Colombian program's success. Lindquist arrived in Colombia uniquely prepared for his mission. He had served as a Mormon missionary in the largely Colombian and Puerto Rican barrios of New York City. "There you have to learn quickly, or you fall flat on your face," said Jorge Ros-Torres, a former Assistant United States Attorney in Puerto Rico and South Florida, who is currently OPDAT Associate Director for Latin
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America. Regarding Lindquist, Ros-Torres said, "He's gained the confidence of important figures in Colombian political and legal life. He knows more about Colombian law than many Colombian lawyers and he can sit down and argue with them chapter and verse." As part of OPDAT's efforts to train Colombian prosecutors, last March Lindquist and Ros-Torres brought more than 100 Colombian prosecutors, judges, and investigators to San Juan, Puerto Rico, to take part in a final two-week program that immersed them in the island's unique Spanish-language accusatorial system of justice. The effort followed a one-year series of OPDAT-sponsored conferences, seminars, and workshops designed to provide Colombian prosecutors in-country with the legal and procedural background needed for reform. In pushing the reform agenda, Lindquist counted on the support of key senior Colombian public officials. In Puerto Rico, the Colombians observed the functioning of prosecutors' offices and the courts in an accusatorial system. Abstract constructs, such as "teamwork" and why the system offers a rapid and humane approach to criminal justice, came alive as a result of the visit. The Colombians were impressed by the system's efficiency, thoroughness, and professionalism. Throughout the program, prosecutors and magistrates with similar regional backgrounds were paired as roommates and work group members to enhance prospects for personal investment in the training and to ensure the future implementation of the concepts. Prospects for ultimate success, of course, lie in the hands of the Colombians themselves. "The hard decisions are Colombian decisions," says Lindquist. "What we have done is provide them with the training, orientation, and complete legal and procedural context within which they can make this difficult adjustment. We can and should do no more."

USABulletin October 1996 Volume 44, Number 5


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