A previous sentence has been revised downwards for thirteen while the reform of the Penal Code is directly applied to four
MADRID, 22 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The number of convicts who have benefited from the new penalty framework included in the ‘only yes is yes’ law amounts to at least 17, between lower sentence reviews (13) and sentences subsequent to the application of the norm (4).
The last reduction that has come to light is that of a man whose prison sentence imposed for sexual assault has been recalculated by the Provincial Court of Cantabria, going from five to two years.
This case, which has also led to the “immediate release” of the prisoner -in total there are six releases from prison-, adds to the list of discounts hitherto known: four in Madrid, two in the Balearic Islands, two in Galicia, one in Andalusia, one in Castilla y León, one in Castilla-La Mancha and one in Murcia.
Regarding the new sentences handed down after the reform, sources consulted by Europa Press explain that the TSJ of Galicia has applied the new sentences in one case, in the Provincial Court of León they have been applied in two and in the Provincial Court of Barcelona they have handed down one sentence for a consummated crime of rape.
In their resolutions, the magistrates have indicated that the reductions respond to the application of the new law. And they have specified that although the regulations do not clarify whether or not it should be applied to procedures in process or with a final sentence, the Penal Code itself in its second article indicates that “those criminal laws that favor the prisoner will have retroactive effect.”
Although the sentence reductions do not exceed twenty, this number may be increased in the coming days due to the pending revisions. In fact, this same Tuesday, the president of the Superior Court of Justice of the Basque Country (TSJPV), Iñaki Subijana, has affirmed that the three Provincial Courts of the Basque Country have already received 10 requests for review of sentences for sexual crimes, although he has pointed out that there is no ruling and the Criminal magistrates of these judicial bodies are meeting to establish common criteria.
As in Euskadi, the presidents of the fifteen criminal sections of the Provincial Court of Madrid try to unify criteria and in fact have agreed to meet this Friday, November 25.
Specifically, in the courts of Madrid – which are waiting for dozens of petitions – four sentences have been reviewed in which the prison sentences have finally been reduced. In one of the cases, the sentence imposed before the law was reduced by up to five years. In the other three they were lowered in two years. In two cases they were released.
Among the cases of sentence reduction that Europa Press has been able to confirm, it is stated that the Superior Court of Justice (TSJ) of Murcia has ratified a sentence of a defendant for an attempted sexual assault on a woman in 2020. The court, however, has modified the sentence imposed because it is “more favorable” for the prisoner to apply the ‘law of only yes is yes’. Thus, it has reduced the sentence from 4 years and 6 months to 3 years and 1 day in prison.
For its part, the Provincial Court of the Balearic Islands has ordered the immediate release of two prisoners who were serving a three-year prison sentence for two sexual assaults without penetration after reviewing the two cases.
In Galicia, in the Provincial Court of Ourense, they have reviewed a sentence of 3 years and 6 months in prison imposed on the author of an attempted crime of sexual assault with carnal access. After the review, he has reduced the sentence to 2 years and 6 months in prison and has agreed to his release.
Likewise, the Galician Superior Court of Justice has reduced by two years the prison sentence imposed on a man who raped a woman he met through the Tinder social network in Cambre.
The legal sources consulted by Europa Press have pointed out that in Castilla y León, in the Provincial Court of Segovia, four enforceable sentences on sexual crimes have been reviewed and one of them has been modified. In this case, the sentence has been reduced from 12 years to 9 years in prison.
Similarly, it is clear that the TSJ of Andalusia has dismissed an appeal and although they have confirmed the sentence — “by retroactive application of the current norm” — they have reduced the prison sentence. Thus, it has gone from 13 years, 6 months and 1 day to 11 years and 1 day.
Added to the list is the case of the TSJ of Castilla La Mancha, which has lowered the sentence of a man who sexually assaulted a woman in Ciudad Real. Thus, he has gone from having to serve 9 years in prison to 8.
It should be remembered that the reviews carried out by judges are subject to appeal and that they could go as far as the Supreme Court (TS), the judicial seat called upon to establish jurisprudence.
Legal sources have specified to Europa Press that the Supreme Court would have to study the application of the law on a case-by-case basis, because the possibility of reaching non-jurisdictional agreements disappeared from the Organic Law of the Judiciary (LOPJ), so that it could not hold a conclave.
As explained by the aforementioned sources, the reviews made of final convictions prior to 2015 may be appealed directly to the Supreme Court, but those that refer to subsequent cases may only reach the high court when the appeal route in lower instances has been exhausted.
Before knowing the position of the Supreme Court, the State Attorney General, Álvaro García Ortiz, has issued a decree on Monday for prosecutors to give “a uniform response” to the reviews of final sentences caused by the entry into force of this law, establishing that they will not be modified when the sentence imposed can be handed down with the new penal framework, thus avoiding an “automatic” reduction of sentences.
