Minister Dias Toffoli was defined as rapporteur, at the Federal Supreme Court (STF), of the appeal against the nullification of the jury in the Kiss Nightclub case.
The action, filed by the Federal Public Ministry (MPF), is against the decision of the Superior Court of Justice (STJ), which maintained the nullification of the jury against the four accused of the fire at the nightclub in Santa Maria (RS), in 2013.
The case reached the Court on April 3 and was distributed this Monday (8) to the minister, who had already acted in a previous case dealing with the Kiss nightclub case.
The vice-president of the STJ, Og Fernandes, accepted the MPF's extraordinary appeal in March and ordered the case to be sent to the Supreme Court. The appeal questions the decision of the Sixth Panel of the STJ which, in September last year, upheld the annulment of the convictions of four defendants in the Kiss nightclub case.
The decision that annulled the convictions — upheld by the STJ in 2023 — was taken by the Court of Justice of Rio Grande do Sul (TJ-RS) in August 2022. The arrests of the four accused were then revoked.
The annulment was justified by the consideration that several illegalities had occurred in the jury responsible for convicting the four, such as failures in the choice of jurors, the holding of a private meeting between the presiding judge of the jury and the jurors, without the participation of the defense or the Public Prosecutor's Office, as well as irregularities in the preparation of trial questions.
The extraordinary appeal presented by the MPF understands that the issues considered illegal by the TJ-RS and the Sixth Panel of the STJ were not pointed out at the appropriate time by the defense.
By accepting the appeal, Og Fernandes understood that the position adopted by the Sixth Panel, in theory, reveals a possible divergence with the STF's jurisprudence. Furthermore, because the discussion had a constitutional nature, he concluded that it should be taken to the STF for analysis.
In February, Toffoli accepted the request from the Public Ministry of Rio Grande do Sul (MP-RS) and suspended the holding of a new jury to judge the defendants accused of the fire. The new trial was scheduled for February 26, in Porto Alegre. He concluded that holding a new jury could cause “procedural turmoil”, as there are still pending appeals regarding the first trial, held in 2021 and annulled by the RS Court of Justice.
Accused of simple homicide with possible intent, the four defendants are:
- Elissandro Callegaro Spohr, member of the nightclub, previously sentenced to 22 years and 6 months in prison;
- Luciano Bonilha Leão, band assistant, previously sentenced to 18 years in prison;
- Marcelo de Jesus dos Santos, lead singer of the band, previously sentenced to 18 years in prison;
- Mauro Londero Hoffmann, member of the nightclub, previously sentenced to 19 years and 6 months in prison.
With the nullification of the jury, the four defendants were released in August 2022 after around eight months in prison.
The fire at Kiss Nightclub resulted in the deaths of 242 people.
*Published by Emilly Behnke, in collaboration with CNN
Source: CNN Brasil
I’m James Harper, a highly experienced and accomplished news writer for World Stock Market. I have been writing in the Politics section of the website for over five years, providing readers with up-to-date and insightful information about current events in politics. My work is widely read and respected by many industry professionals as well as laymen.
