The judge who presided over the jury trial in the Palma Court against an elderly man from Porreres (Mallorca) who shot and killed one of the men who had broken into his house to rob him has ordered a repeat hearing because the player declared guilty. of murder to the accused without the necessary votes.
The judge, Gemma Robles, has responded to the prosecutor's request and has declared the verdict null and void and has established that "the proceedings be taken back to the appropriate procedural moment for the purposes of repeating the oral trial" with a new jury, since the one formed for the failed view, it was dissolved after fulfilling its functions.
Although for the valid formulation of a guilty verdict the favorable vote of seven of the nine members of the popular jury was necessary, in this case there were five jurors who voted in that sense, an irregularity that was not initially appreciated by the defense of the accused of murder. nor the judge.
"It is clear that the purpose of the verdict contains an insurmountable error by having included, in the corresponding section, a proposition of guilt with the title 'favorable'," indicates the magistrate, alluding to the fact that these favorable propositions are approved with the majority. minimum of five jury members.
The judge emphasizes that "this defect in the preparation of the object of the verdict, by itself, represents an insurmountable injury" to the right to effective judicial protection of the accused and denies the request for acquittal of the lawyer of the elderly defendant because the failure in the formulation of the verdict prevents him from "knowing with certainty" what the jury's resolution would have been if the question had been posed correctly.
In the trial, held in mid-September, both the old man, who was 73 years old when the events occurred in February 2018, and three of the alleged thieves who attacked his house along with the fourth young man who died from the gunshot of the owner of the store were accused. the farm.
The Prosecutor's Office initially requested 4 years in prison for the alleged murderer, although at the end of the now-annulled hearing they reduced that request by 3 months.
