The judges of the Provincial Court of Madrid have agreed that, when revising penalties for the entry into force of the law guaranteeing total sexual freedom, they will only apply if it is the most favorable criterion for the prisoner, as reported this Friday by the Colonel Madrid Court of Justice in a note. The judges are thus distancing themselves from the position of the Attorney General’s Office, who signaled to their prosecutors a few days ago that from now on they would “in principle” not support any reductions in sentences if the sentence originally imposed was within the range of sentences provided for in the new law . The decision of the Provincial Court of Madrid was adopted by 32 votes to 8, with nine abstentions. The provincial courts of Granada, Bizkaia and Málaga ruled in the same spirit, as did those of Zaragoza and Córdoba. La Rioja, on the other hand, shares the criteria for most cases with the Public Prosecutor’s Office, but does not rule out reducing the sentences of those affected through the reduction in minimum sentences included in the new law. Similarly, the decision of Las Palmas, which has agreed to reduce ex officio only those sentences where the maximum sentence has been reduced and in the remaining cases, including those that had the minimum sentence with the previous law, should be analyzed in a similar way “on a case-by-case basis”.
The judges of the 15 criminal divisions of the Provincial Court of Madrid have ruled that in cases where the minimum sentence was initially imposed on the sex offender, the sentence will be reviewed for the new minimum sentence, as has already happened. happened in several cases in this community. The argument is that the fundamental principle of criminal law must be respected, that the convict has the right to retrospective application of the law if it favors him.
In addition to the chairmen of the sections, up to 49 other judges attended the session who were not obliged but came voluntarily useful for internal use and is a valuable tool to discuss procedural issues or discrepancies,” the TSJM specifies in its statement. A legal source points out that “there was hardly any debate” and that it was clear to almost everyone present was that the lack of a transitional provision in the law from Just Yes forced them to opt for the final adopted decision.”That was practically the only item on the table in a fairly short meeting,” says this source.The decision was in any case not unanimous, but with 32 yes, eight no and nine abstentions.
On Monday, Attorney General Álvaro García Ortiz issued a decree directing prosecutors to resist reviewing sentences for sex offenders if the original sentence is included within the range of sentences provided for in the new law. In other words, if an aggressor has been sentenced to a minimum sentence of six years and that sentence is now included within the new law’s penal framework, it will be upheld, even though it is no longer the minimum possible. However, García Ortiz also pointed out that each case should be analyzed individually.
There are already several provincial courts that have unified criteria to work with and are awaiting the Supreme Court’s teaching on how these penalties should be reviewed after the yes-is-yes law goes into effect. Almost all hearings that have ruled so far have done so against the Public Ministry’s criteria, although it has also warned that it would be necessary to go on a case-by-case basis based on the specific considerations contained in each sentence.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez asked for time again this Friday: “The Attorney General’s Office has already decided, it has uniform criteria for the application of the law and there were provincial hearings that have positioned themselves for a reading, [y] others from another As President, I think it is important to wait for the decision of the Supreme Court so that this whole teaching is unified and we guarantee the safety of women among all. Sánchez said informed Jose Marcos.
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The judges of La Rioja and Zaragoza were the first to debate how to handle the review of judgments without waiting for the Supreme Court’s verdict, but different conclusions were reached at these meetings. While the La Rioja court – in agreement with the prosecutor – decided to apply the transitional provision of the Penal Code of 1995, which allows penalties not to be reduced in certain cases, the other judges have interpreted that this transitional provision applies only to possible revisions of the Criminal Code relates judgments this year. In this way, La Rioja refused to review 54 inmates, while Zaragoza will start reviewing decisions ex officio in the coming weeks.
The magistrates of Bizkaia and Las Palmas also met this Friday. The Basques have agreed that they will review the final sentences ex officio and apply mitigations as long as they favor the prisoner. For their part, the Canarian judges have decided not to carry out an ex officio review, unless “there are doubts that it could be subject to a possible modification to the advantage of the prisoner”.
Two hundred sentences are checked
In the 15 criminal chambers of the Madrid court there are 447 cases of sexual abuse and assault with firm convictions that will have to be reviewed after the yes-is-yes law comes into force. The judges have already started reviewing 121 and are processing another 55 at the request of the convicts’ lawyers. “As a result of the review carried out so far by the Madrid courts, the sentence has been reduced in 20 cases, namely in seven release was ordered [del condenado], except that in one case the prisoner continues to serve a sentence by being finally convicted of other crimes,” according to data made available by the TSJM this Friday. In the rest of Spain, at least 14 penalties have been reduced since the law came into force. In nine cases, the cut involved the release of the inmates.