stress that the Juzgado Seccional de Tocoa [Court of the First Instance of Tocoa] carried out all these procedures on the same day of October 14, 2003 in order to facilitate the immediate dismissal of the charges against Messrs. Facussé and Castro, while other procedures to clarify the murder of Mr. Escalera took months and years to carry out, and others have not yet been carried out. They add that on October 23 of 2003 the attorneys of Messrs. Facussé and Castro requested their final release; this petition was received and decided on the same date, and both defendants were issued the release.7 The petitioners claim that, consequently, there was an unwarranted delay in the administration of justice and that the remedies under domestic law were, in practice, ineffective. They request that, in the light of the aforementioned, the Commission admit the petition based on the exception provided for by Article 42 (2) (c) of the American Convention. B. The State 14. The State of Honduras argues that it does not sponsor a policy of extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions against any particular social group in the country, as is alleged by the petitioners, and stresses that in the referred cases the State has initiated investigations in a timely manner and has found those responsible for the crimes guilty. It maintains that in the last few years there was an improvement in the human rights situation of the country.8 15. The State argues that there is no atmosphere of impunity in Honduras. It emphasizes that in this case there is a judgment against one of the defendants, who was found guilty of being a perpetrator of this crime. The State also stresses that there was no negligence on the part of the Office of the Prosecutor or of the Judiciary: both have exerted their best efforts so that the defendants would be tried as promptly as possible. It maintains, with respect to the homicide of Mr. Escaleras, that all judicial measures and procedures determined by Honduran law were carried out and that the petition is unfounded because there has been no violation of the right to due process or to the right to a fair trial. 7 According to the evidence available to the Commission, the criminal trial of the abettors of the death of Mr. Escaleras Mejía continues against other alleged abettors, Messrs. Juan Ramón Salgado, José Salomón Martínez and Oscar Félix Sosa Vargas. 8 The State of Honduras notes the enactment of a new Organic Law of the Police and a new Code of Criminal Procedure which replaced the old inquisitorial with the adversary system. 6