Madrid (EFE).- The Supreme Court today addresses a monographic plenary session to establish doctrine on the review of final sentences by the law of only yes is yes, one of the most controversial laws of the legislature, which has allowed to date the reduction of at least 1,079 sentences, including 108 releases.
The conclave will be held this Tuesday and Wednesday in morning and afternoon sessions since there are 29 sentences that have to be reviewed out of the more than 200 that are appealed in court, mostly by the Prosecutor’s Office.
Legal sources inform EFE that the intention of the Supreme Court is to agree with a qualified majority on jurisprudence that provides clarity to the autonomous courts, which do not agree in their way of proceeding given that some courts have reduced the sentences but others, on the other hand, , they have not done it. However, the sources specify that in some aspects there is a division of positions.
Debate around the fifth transitional provision
The debate will revolve around the validity and application of the fifth transitory provision of the Penal Code of 1995, which establishes that when the sentence imposed is also taxable in accordance with the range established by the new norm, it does not have to be revised.
Thus, the question is whether this transitory provision of 1995 is useful for subsequent reforms of the Penal Code, which have not included specific transitory provisions in their texts. The State Attorney General’s Office maintains that it is.
The 15 magistrates must also rule on the trial of proportionality in sentences and also fully compare the 2015 Penal Code with the Yes is Yes Law.
To date, the Supreme Court had ruled on sentences that were not final, but now it will study the most controversial cases, those whose sentence has been altered after the entry into force of the law.
Some of these resources come from the convicts themselves who consider that the reductions in their sentences with the new legal framework are insufficient, although the majority come from the Prosecutor’s Office.
According to data provided by the CGPJ, as of May 1, the courts have agreed to at least 1,079 sentence reductions in application of the new law, including 108 releases; that is, 30% of the sentences reviewed in Spain imply a reduction in the prisoner’s sentence.