The São Paulo Court of Justice (TJSP) decided to extinguish the sentences of the police officers convicted of the Carandiru massacre, which occurred in 1992. 
The decision was handed down on October 2 by the Fourth Chamber of Criminal Law and based on the Christmas pardon granted in December 2022 by former president Jair Bolsonaro to amnesty police officers.
The massacre occurred in October 1992, when police repression of a prison riot resulted in the death of 111 inmates.
The episode led to the conviction of 73 police officers. The sentences range from 48 to 624 years in prison.
According to the criminal chamber, the decree was considered constitutional by the court’s special body and must be applied to those convicted.
“In these terms, it is imperative to declare the extinction of the punishment, by pardon, of the corporal penalties imposed on all defendants in this criminal action”, decided the magistrates.
The effects of the pardon were suspended in January 2023 by the then president of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), minister Rosa Weber. However, the merits of the case were scheduled to be judged in June this year, but did not go to trial.
In the same month, Minister Luiz Fux granted an injunction to allow the TJSP to carry out the trial that considered the pardon constitutional.
Bolsonaro’s pardon was questioned in the STF by the Attorney General’s Office (PGR). For the prosecutor’s office, Bolsonaro’s act is unconstitutional because it violates human dignity and grants amnesty to those involved in crimes against humanity.
