The percentage of revisions that imply a sentence reduction is 32 percent, pending the Supreme Court agreeing on a definitive doctrine
The General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) continues to count the reductions in sentences for sexual offenders motivated by the application of the law of comprehensive guarantee of sexual freedom, better known as the “law of only yes is yes”, which reach already a total of 978 cases, of which 104 have led to the release of the convicted person.
These are the official data released this Friday by the governing body of the judges to El PERIÓDICO DE ESPAÑA, from the Prensa Ibérica group, which indicate that the percentage of downward revisions of final convictions carried out both by provincial courts and by higher courts that imply a reduction of the jail sentences initially imposed is of 32 percent.
In the case of the Supreme Court – which has not yet dealt with any final sentence, but only reductions in appeals in a total of 15 cases – this percentage rises to 40 percent.
The information was not renewed since last March 2, when the Council officially reported 721 reductions and 74 releases throughout Spain due to the revisions made by the norm promoted by the Ministry of Equality. The majority of reductions, a total of 880, have been agreed by Provincial Courts, while in another 82 cases this decision has been adopted by the superior courts of justice. The National Court has addressed this issue on only one occasion so far.
The data is known only a few days after the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court announced that it will meet in plenary session on June 6 and 7 to establish doctrine in relation to the appeals filed against these reviews. The position of the Supreme will allow to overcome the discrepancies that for the moment have been evidenced between the positions of certain provincial courts and the result of subsequent appeals before the next instance, the superior courts of justice, which have revoked them.
All this information also coincides with the controversial policy on account of a new penal reform that seeks to prevent future cases of sexual assault -crimes already committed are affected by current regulations- entail lower sentences for sexual offenders. The proposals of the different parties, aimed at re-include circumstances of violence or intimidation When it comes to assessing the sentences for sexual assault, they will foreseeably be endorsed by Parliament on the 20th.
For the moment, the Supreme Court has only ruled on reduction requests including in extremis by the defenses of those convicted in some appeals, which were still pending resolution after the entry into force last October of the law. In other words, the high court has not yet ruled on the thousand reductions produced, which have begun to reach this body after being appealed by the Prosecutor’s Office.
Thus, it will be the June plenary session that establishes a definitive doctrinal position, predictably resolving several different issues that can be extrapolated to others that are also on the table in the high court.
For the moment, the superior courts of Castilla y León, Andalusia or the Balearic Islands have revoked decisions of the provincial hearings coinciding with the Prosecutor’s Office; while in Madrid its high court has made its first decisions public, in which it flatly ignores the instructions of the Public Ministry headed by Álvaro García Ortiz.
Said criterion implies that, in those cases in which the sentence imposed is also taxable in accordance with the regulation resulting from the reform, the sentence will not be reviewed. It remains to be seen if the Supreme Court accepts this criterion or opts for the application of the sentence that is most favorable to the accused, which is the principle that is causing the sentence reductions in application of the new law.