Justice Javier Hernandez Garcia, judge of the Supreme Court of Spain, said that the Dominican criminal procedure model is, normatively, a product that, if used well, allows for an effective, objective and efficient response, but that it requires a strong commitment to coordination and interoperability among the actors of the system.
In this sense, the European expert considered that in order to achieve the optimization of the Dominican penal process, it is necessary to establish a model that facilitates coordination, continuous dialogue, analysis of its challenges and weaknesses, but above all a proactive commitment among all the actors of the system, "since the norm, by itself, is not enough to obtain good results".
He indicated that this is the role to which the Attorney General's Office, the Public Defender's Office, private attorneys and the judges of the Judicial Branch are called upon to play.
The magistrate, who visited the country as part of the Twinning project mission, sees the need for a legislative reform that impacts both the procedural regulations and the Penal Code itself, which dates back to 1884.
"As long as a new Penal Code is not reached, the acceleration mechanisms may be difficult, precisely because of the gap identified between the penalties provided for in the Penal Code of 1884 and the penalties that these conducts would deserve today; I believe that it is fundamental, a clear legislative commitment, which there was, but I believe that a political commitment is fundamental for a new Penal Code to come out ahead", he considered.
He explained that within the Twinning Project , which is financed by the European Union (EU), being the Dominican Republic the first country to receive this collaboration, they have identified areas for improvement in terms of the reduction of judicial delays, the number of persons deprived of liberty on a provisional basis (which in the CPP is called preventive detention) and prison overcrowding.
He indicated that preventive imprisonment must be considered an exceptional coercive mechanism, as established by the CPP and the Dominican Constitution, which implies that in order to apply it, all the requirements for its adoption must be met and it must be justified by the judge.
"The Dominican Code of Criminal Procedure is replete with rules that call for exceptionality and rules that insist on the need to review ex officio when some of the circumstances that justified its imposition change, therefore, the code gives us the instruments to subject pre-trial detention to a strong standard of restriction," said Hernandez Garcia.
He also stated that all operators of the Dominican justice system agree on the existence of a significant delay in the resolution of a good number of criminal matters that reach the courts, and considered it possible to reduce the time between the commission of a crime and its prosecution, or between the commission of the criminal act and the punishment of the responsible party, if the acceleration mechanisms established in the current criminal procedure regulations are applied.
"Alternative Dispute Resolution Methods are not methods that somehow generate impunity or non-punishment of the person responsible for the criminal act, and that is something very important that society has to know; an alternative criminal method does not necessarily mean that the person should not assume responsibility for the criminal act, but it is a way to establish responsibility more quickly, faster, but also has many important effects," he explained.
He gave the example of Spain, which since 2002 has used the mechanisms for speeding up the criminal process, generating a satisfactory result, in the sense that almost 80% of the crimes committed in Spain, for which those responsible are identified, obtain a definitive sentence within a week to a month.
About Judge Hernández García
Currently a judge in the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Spain. President of the Provincial Court of Tarragona and since December 31, 2005, of its 4th Section (Criminal and Violence against Women), in Spain. He was a professor at the Judicial School of Spain (Barcelona) and is the author of numerous publications. Throughout his career he has received the following merits and awards: Magistrate specialist in the criminal jurisdictional order (Recognition Agreement of the CGPJ, BOE January 7, 2013), Distinguished Cross of First Class of San Raimundo de Peñafort, medal of Merit of the Civil Guard with White badge, Bronze medal for Police Merit of the Cos de Mossos d'Esquadra, medal with blue badge of the Guardia Urbana de Tarragona.
