The tension between the agreement of no criminal persecution and the state of innocence

Abstract

Whereas Law n. 13,964 inserted the non-criminal prosecution agreement (ANPP) in article 28-A of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which provides that, once the legal requirements are met, the Public Ministry must offer an agreement to the accused to avoid criminal prosecution, the objective is analyze whether the institute of the agreement violates the constitutional principle of the presumption of innocence. Therefore, the concept, historical evolution and legal nature of the ANPP are analyzed, in addition to identifying the importance of the principle of the presumption of innocence, in order to identify possible conflicts and tensions, from a deductive method, using the literature review technique and jurisprudential analysis. It was noted that the non-criminal prosecution agreement in itself can be beneficial, but it could also bring harm to the accused, especially when it establishes the confession of the crime as a formal requirement. Finally, it was found that a possible solution to the conflict would be the unnecessary confession of the crime, preserving the constitutional right of the accused not to be found guilty before the final and unappealable sentence of the criminal sentence.