Abstract

BAHAMONDE, Rosa Rodríguez. PRESUMPTION OF INNOCENCE, PRIOR TRIALS AND TRIALS BY MEDIA. Revista Internacional CONSINTER de Direito [online]. 2022, n.14, pp.335-348.  Epub Sep 08, 2022. ISSN 2183-6396.  https://doi.org/10.19135/revista.consinter.00014.14.

The criminal process in democratic procedural systems is based, essentially, on the guarantee of the presumption of innocence of the suspects, investigated or prosecuted. Without this guarantee, it could not be understood that it´s a due process of law. The presumption of innocence has, as a procedural guarantee, two manifestations: as a rule of treatment it implies that the individuals subjected to the process must be considered innocent until a conviction is handed down against them; and as a rule of law it essentially requires that there be sufficient evidence to destroy the presumption.

The validity of this guarantee is justified in the need to protect the impartiality of the judge and in the need to ensure that the persons subjected to the criminal process do not start from a position of disadvantage derived from the procedural situation itself. Guaranteeing that a subject is innocent until a conviction is handed down is a need that has been revealed in recent times by the increase in information referring to criminal proceedings and disseminated in the media and social networks. In this article I study the essential matters of the guarantee of presumption of innocence in Spain and how it can be affected by the publications made before and during the process, analyzing recent jurisprudence on these issues to offer some practical solutions.

After analyzing legislation, jurisprudence and the evolution of our system of procedural guarantees and in view of the current situation of excessive exposure of the criminal process in the media, the conclusions reached in this article are aimed at underlining the validity of the procedural guarantees in relation to those threats that come from an inadequate conduct of the subjects that exercise the opinion and the information. The guarantees must be especially forceful in relation to the protection of the presumption of innocence of the subjects subjected to investigations, instructions and criminal proceedings of all kinds: it is about seeking a balance between the legitimate functions performed by the press in relation to the process and the way of administering justice and the position of the subjects subjected to the criminal process.

Keywords : presumption of innocence; freedom of information; judicial independence; trials by press; due process of law..

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