Crime and the Administration of Justice in Buenos Aires, 1785-1853

6. Administering Criminal Justice in Buenos Aires, 1810–1853

KimE — University of Nebraska Press / Page 88 / AUGUST . 31 . 2005 / Crime and the Administration of Justice in Buenos Aires, 1785–1853 / Osvaldo Barreneche 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 [First Page] [88], (1) Lines: 0 to 40 ——— 0.0pt PgVar ——— Normal Page PgEnds: TEX [88], (1) 6. Administering Criminal Justice in Buenos Aires, 1810–1853 This chapter analyzes the administration of criminal justice from 1810 on. It studies how magistrates and judicial officials performed their duties while colonial state forms, like penal justice, were adopting a republican platform. In this scenario, the judiciary not only faced challenges from other state powers but also disputes inside its changing structure. Finally, the chapter deals with concrete criminal cases studying changes and continuities of this process and explaining the roles of their participants. Porteño judicial institutions were not many if we compare them with other cities like Mexico. The former capital of New Spain inherited many magistrate offices and intermediate tribunals from the colonial period. In fact, Mexico had a Supreme Court of Justice from the mid-1820s on, which was not the case of the Río de la Plata region until 1862.1 The Cámara de Apelaciones or Tribunal de Justicia in Buenos Aires had to perform that role instead, which, according to Mark D. Szuchman, was not enough for guaranteeing citizens’ rights.2 Republican criminal justice maintained the power of interpreting the law in concrete cases like its colonial predecessor. But at the same time, this power diminished while other state powers became more influential in key aspects of the penal process. Such interference was stimulated by the increasingly persuasive idea that republican judicial authorities were not capable of dealing with urgent matters of public safety. Gente decente from Buenos Aires claimed to executive authority to cope with such a problem even at the cost of disregarding the rights of due process. In contrast to what Szuchman suggested, republican criminal justice opposed these extraordinary legal procedures, trying at the same time to reaffirm its authority on judicial matters. Such public gestures contributed to spreading an image of inefficiency fueled by executive authorities, which gave room for the intervention of other state officials on legal issues. The Porteño appeals court tried to maintain members of the judiciary under its control but many of them requested assistance or help from executive authorities, which attempted to undermine the independence of the judicial branch of the government. Although the basic stages of the criminal process continued after independence, KimE — University of Nebraska Press / Page 89 / AUGUST . 31 . 2005 / Crime and the Administration of Justice in Buenos Aires, 1785–1853 / Osvaldo Barreneche administering criminal justice 89 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 [89], (2) Lines: 40 to 49 ——— 13.0pt PgVar ——— Normal Page * PgEnds: Eject [89], (2) their contents and meanings changed significantly. Brief oral trials in charge of bothordinaryandextraordinarilyappointedmagistrateschallengedtheauthority of the appeals court by skipping many steps of due process. The tribunal rejected these trials although it also adopted measures to speed up criminal procedures. Thus, judicial officials also experienced the contradictions between the new republican discourse and the reality upon which it was supposed to be applied. Tribunals, Judges, and Judicial Officials after 1810 In his study of social control in early republican Buenos Aires, Szuchman argued that criminal justice in the city is best studied from police records. After analyzing the adherence of police authorities to the principle of barrio autonomy (judicial independence at the neighborhood level), he concluded that the criminal justice system did not become an integrative mechanism of nation building in Argentina.3 The nature of the judicial system, however, was more complex. Szuchman’s focus on social control overlooks other aspects in the formation of the penal system. During the 1810s, the Rivadavian years in the 1820s,and the Rosas regime later on,power was contested and negotiated among the executive branch of the government, the judiciary, police authorities, as well as between these state forms and diverse groups in civil society. Hence,the study of police practices...