Streamlining Justice: The Abbreviated Criminal Procedure
The Abbreviated Procedure: Key Features
The simplified procedure is designed to streamline and expedite the criminal justice process. Its main features reflect the legislature’s intent to abolish unnecessary or redundant procedures, treat competition issues more agilely, and enhance the oral sentence (“in voce”). These features include:
Procedural Streamlining and Efficiency
This involves the abolition of certain unnecessary or redundant procedures. Competition issues are treated more agilely, and the oral sentence (“in voce”) is enhanced.
Strengthening Guarantees for the Victim and the Accused
The Judicial Police are obliged to inform the arrested accused not only of the facts attributed to them but also of their rights. The right to counsel is recognized from the moment the allegation of a crime against a particular person is proven. The defense attorney may also take over the functions of representation during the instruction phase until the opening of the trial.
Increased Due Process and Judicial Police Responsibilities
The Judicial Police are entrusted with the implementation of certain independent research measures, which is a clear recognition of their pretrial investigative functions. They are attributed specific acts of inquiry and assurance of evidence sources, such as taking personal data on people they meet at the scene and identifying and collecting effects, instruments, or evidence of the crime whose disappearance is endangered.
Increased Responsibilities of the Public Prosecutor
This aims for greater consolidation of the adversarial system and expedites the pretrial stage. During the preliminary investigation, the Prosecutor may agree to measures limiting the right to freedom, such as arrest or summons to appear. The law makes prosecution an element of speeding up the procedures, prompting the judge to conclude the investigation as soon as they deem the necessary actions have been practiced to resolve the exercise of penal action.
Scope and Stages of the Simplified Process
The abbreviated process applies to the investigation and prosecution of offenses punishable with imprisonment not exceeding nine years.
The Preliminary Investigation
The preliminary investigation is given special relevance in summary proceedings prior to the official investigation to prosecution. This is based on the awareness that these proceedings may be sufficient to make the accusation without protracted proceedings.
The Instruction Phase
The instruction phase differs from the normal procedure in the formulation of the judicial complaint. The shortcut does not occur until the end of a preliminary investigation with the order transforming the proceedings into a summary procedure. The order of transformation is imposed when the essential proceedings have concluded for the determination of both the facts and the persons involved in them. This procedure provides for opening separate pieces for both preventive measures and measures restricting freedom rights.
The Intermediate Phase
During the intermediate phase, the charging parties ask for trial and formulate the indictments before the examining magistrate, who shall order the trial to open. The statement of defense must also be submitted before the magistrate. A particularity is that if the prosecutor does not submit the indictment in time, they shall be deemed to have opposed the indictment, which does not occur in the common process.
The Trial
The trial includes a debate or preliminary hearing whose purpose is to accumulate in one act a number of competition issues, such as:
- Jurisdiction of the judiciary.
- Infringement of certain fundamental rights.
- The existence of items before the Committee (preliminary issues).
- Causes for oral trial suspension.
- Content and purpose of the proposed evidence.
The sentence shall be in writing unless it had been delivered orally after the hearing, allowing the criminal court to sentence orally.