Brazil's Supreme Court upholds decision ordering Ronnie Lessa, accused of the murder of Marielle Franco, to face a jury trial.
Retired military police officer Ronnie Lessa is being held in pretrial detention for the 2018 murders of city councilwoman Marielle Franco and her driver Anderson Gomes.
Conjur - The 1st Panel of the Federal Supreme Court unanimously upheld the rejection of the Habeas Corpus with which the defense of retired military police officer Ronnie Lessa questioned the decision that submitted him to a popular jury for the murder of councilwoman Marielle Franco and driver Anderson Gomes, in 2018, in Rio de Janeiro.
In a virtual session, the panel denied an appeal (procedural appeal) against the decision of Minister Rosa Weber in Habeas Corpus (HC) 216.511. Lessa is in preventive detention.
In March 2020, the indictment—the decision that submits the defendant to a jury trial—accepted three aggravating circumstances stipulated in Article 121 of the Penal Code: "base motive," "another means that hindered the victim's defense," and "to ensure impunity for another crime."
The Rio de Janeiro Court of Justice and the Superior Court of Justice denied the defense's appeals and the sentence was upheld.
Lessa's lawyers then filed a writ of habeas corpus in the Supreme Court, arguing that the ruling's grounds regarding the qualifiers were unsuitable and that there was no information in the records as to what the motive for the crime had been.
In June of this year, however, Minister Rosa Weber rejected the request, applying, among other grounds, the STF's jurisprudence on the impossibility of using Habeas Corpus as a substitute for appeal.
Jurisprudence
In her vote to dismiss the procedural appeal, the justice reiterated the grounds for the single judge's decision. She emphasized that, according to the Supreme Court's understanding, habeas corpus is not a suitable means of re-discussing the Superior Court of Justice's decision regarding the admissibility of a special appeal.
Furthermore, it is not feasible to use Habeas Corpus to remove criminal qualifiers, as accepting the request would require reviewing the factual and evidentiary set of the case, which is not possible through this procedural route.
With information from the STF press office.
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