In February 2019, minister Sergio Moro presented to the Brazilian Government the anti-crime bill, which promises to tighten current criminal legislation.
The amendments reach the Brazilian Penal Code, Criminal Procedure Code and Electoral Code.
Among the several legislative changes that are being proposed by this project, the ones that gained most attention were: (i) measures to harden criminal enforcement; (ii) the obligation to serve a sentence after the conviction in a first instance, before the final sentence of the conviction is final; (iii) immediate execution of the sentence of conviction of the jury's court; (iv) the application of the American plea bargain method; (v) the possibility of including militias as criminal organizations; (vi) and the extension of the defense of lawfulness for police officers and security professionals, increasing the possibility of claiming legitimate defense.
Some of these proposals call attention to the possibility of being unconstitutional, as in the case of the obligation to serve a sentence after the conviction in a first instance, before the final sentence of the conviction is final. As well as the possibility of giving the police authorities a kind of "carte blanche" to kill, without receiving sanctions for this, as is the case of the proposed extension of the defense of lawfulness for police officers and security professionals.
The bill was sent to the National Congress on february 13, 2019 for analysis, with voting scheduled for this year.
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*Mariana Cardoso Magalhães is partner of Homero Costa Advogados.
