The new Criminal Procedure Codeenacted more than a week ago and put into effect immediately, eliminates some restrictions on agreements between the Public Ministry and those accused of committing crimes and crimes.
In that sense, it enables the possibility of alternative solutions in any stage of the process and eliminates the limit of 20 years or less that the act should have as a sanction for a abbreviated procedure.
This type of negotiation is the most used by the prosecution body in major corruption cases and has allowed it to obtain in a short time final sentences in your favor.
He article 370 of the new Law 97-25on the admissibility of abbreviated procedureestablishes that these can be reconciled “at any stage of the case and with respect to any punishable act.”
Other arrangements to which the parties may agree at all stages of the criminal process are those opportunity criteriato which the prosecutors and that have been popular in embezzlement files, with the so-called “star witnesses” or “awarded informers.”
Obliged to promote conciliations
Another novelty of the new regulations is that it requires judges to promote conciliations between accused and accuser, by establishing, in paragraph II, of the article 305that the magistrates must verify their existence and “the possibility of achieving them.”
Prior to the promulgation of the new Criminal Procedure Codethe main actors of the system, the president of the Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ), Henry Molina; the Attorney General of the Republic, Yeni Berenice Reynosoand the director of the National Public Defense Office, Rudolph Valentininsisted that the processes be less litigious, in order to decongest the courts and prisons.
They cite, among their arguments, what is related to the reasonable period which is not possible to achieve when cases extend up to decades, which also has cost implications for the defendant and the State, in addition to the overload of work for prosecutors, judges and defenders.
According to Molina, we must work to change the litigious culture of the DR because, in his opinion, “it is not sustainable” for the system. According to the president of the SCJ, in the country only the 13 percent of cases, when in other nations, those alternative solutions exceed 90 percent.
The two most helpful
To the abbreviated criminal procedurewhich was also contemplated in the previous legislation that replaces the Law 97-25 but only prior to the opening of the trial, dozens of defendants have been included in the voluminous corruption files submitted in the last five years.
Regarding the opportunity criteriain complex matters or organized crime, the Public Ministry agrees not to criminally prosecute anyone who “collaborates effectively with the investigation, provides essential information to prevent criminal activity or the perpetration of other infractions,” establishes the article 377numeral 6.
He accused It must also help “to clarify the fact investigated and other related events or provide useful information to prove the participation of other defendants.” An additional condition is that the informer is of a lower rank or less responsible than the ringleader.
Attorney General Yeni Berenice Reynoso revealed last week that the opportunity criteria in organized crime cases, which include corruption, these types of agreements “do not even reach 1%.” He defended them by stating that they do them “with a lot of reasonableness” and after considering what they give up by granting them and what they get. He also said that it is a figure that has been used in all countries with great success for decades.
