The proposal by federal deputy Paulinho da Força (Solidariedade-SP) to reduce the sentences of those convicted on January 8 provides for changes to the Penal Code and the Penal Execution Law. Therefore, the application to accused and convicted persons in specific cases would always depend on the interpretation of the STF (Federal Supreme Court), in cases falling within the jurisdiction of the court.
In addition to being able to apply to past cases, in a manner most advantageous to the defendant, the new rules, if approved, will also apply to future episodes.
Understand the points planned in the proposal.
AMPLITUDE
After weeks of uncertainty, given the lack of agreement on the text, the President of the Chamber of Deputies, Hugo Motta (Republicans), decided that the project would be voted on this Tuesday (9) in plenary. The bill that will be put to a vote in the House would have been the result of an agreement between the center and the STF wing to limit it to reduced sentences instead of a broad, general and unrestricted pardon for Bolsonaro and those arrested for participation in the January 8 attacks.
UNSUMMARY PENALTIES
Both those convicted solely for January 8 and those tried for the actions of the coup plot, such as former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL), have had their conduct charged with the crimes of attempting to abolish the democratic rule of law and coup d’état.
Paulinho’s proposal aims to restrict the way in which the judiciary can apply these two crimes, determining that when these crimes occur in the same context, their sentences cannot be combined. It also specifies that this applies even in the case of “autonomous design”, that is to say when there is the intention to commit each of the different crimes.
CRIME COMMITTED BY A CROWD
Another section of the draft states that when these two crimes, attempted abolition of the democratic rule of law and attempted coup d’état, are committed “in crowds”, the punishment will be reduced by one third to two thirds.
This reduction cannot, however, be applied to any of the defendants, but only to those who have not “carried out a financing act or exercised a leadership role”. So such a rule could in theory benefit the executors of January 8’s will, but not names like the former president.
DIET PROGRESSION
In addition, the draft makes changes to the Criminal Execution Act, regarding the criteria for sentence progression in general. He again adopted as a general rule progression towards a more advantageous regime, serving one sixth of the sentence (around 16%), creating a series of exceptions.
In the current law, there is no general rule and the lowest value, 16%, is provided when the convicted person is a first-time offender and the offense was committed without violence to the person or serious threat. In the case of primaries where there was violence against the person or serious threat, an aspect which includes all the convictions of January 8 and the coup plot, the current percentage is 25%.
Therefore, Paulinho da Força’s proposal has the potential to reduce from a quarter to a sixth the sentence that the main convicts of 8/1 and the coup plot must serve, so that they have the possibility of a sentence progression.
PENALTY REMITTANCE
The text also provides that any person serving a sentence at home is not prevented from benefiting from a remission of sentence, that is to say when work or study tasks can be considered to reduce the days of their sentence.
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