Repeals a ruling that withdrew this sentence from parents convicted of the death of a two-year-old child
The Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court (TS) ruled this Tuesday that it is possible to sentence to a reviewable permanent prison sentence in the cases of minors whose deaths occurred with treachery, thus confirming its jurisprudence, according to legal sources.
The plenary of the Criminal Chamber has ruled in relation to the decision of the Valencian Superior Court of Justice (TSJCV) to revoke the reviewable permanent prison of the two convicted -the stepfather as material author and the mother by omission- for the death of the 2-year-old boy Aarón, strangled in Elche in September 2018. The magistrates have agreed by a majority of twelve votes against four – those of Leopoldo Puente, Antonio del Moral, Andrés Martínez Arrieta and Andrés Palomo- to ratify the jurisprudence of the Chamber Second that makes the reviewable permanent prison compatible with the treacherous death of a child.
With this ruling, for which Judge Susana Polo was a rapporteur, the Supreme Court has upheld the appeal filed by the private prosecution in said case, to which the Prosecutor’s Office had adhered, against the judgment of the Superior Court of Justice of Valencia. The question to be resolved was whether it is possible to apply the reviewable permanent prison to those who murder a minor when the penalty for this type of crime already contemplates treachery, to determine if this could violate the ‘non bis in idem’ principle, which prohibits a person from being punished twice for the same acts.
It should be remembered that the reviewable permanent prison is the maximum custodial sentence that exists in the Penal Code. It was approved in the Congress of Deputies on March 26, 2015, as part of the Citizen Security Law, with the only votes in favor of the Popular Party. As its name suggests, it is a prison sentence, in principle for an indefinite period of time, subject to revisions that can serve for the prisoner to regain his freedom.
Until its entry into force, the Criminal Code established limits of 25, 30 or 40 years in prison, depending on the severity of the sentences (article 76), although it recognized the successive serving of sentences in case of accumulation. The reviewable permanent prison can only be imposed for murders in which a specific aggravating circumstance concurs. The list of assumptions is closed and includes cases in which the victim is under 16 years of age or in the case of a particularly vulnerable person.
The plenary debate of the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court takes place after last October, the Constitutional Court endorsed by a majority the reviewable permanent prison, understanding that it constitutes a proportionate sentence that does not violate the principles of reeducation and reintegration contained in the Constitution. The guarantee body then rejected – with the individual votes of three magistrates – the appeal of unconstitutionality promoted by the PSOE against the measure that was approved in 2015 during the Government of Mariano Rajoy.
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