A influência da mídia na condenação dos acusados sujeitos ao tribunal do júri

Abstract

The theme of this research concerns the influence of the media on the conviction of defendants subject to jury trial. The objective of this work is to analyze whether the media influences the outcome of the trial by jury court and, from this, it intends to answer the following problem: the mass media, by disseminating in an exacerbated way certain crimes against life, are able to influence the decision of the jurors drawn to compose the Sentencing Council of the popular court? In this way, considering the globalized, technological and communication era in which we currently live, it is clear that information about the most varied events in Brazil and in the world reaches society in moments. Freedom of speech together with freedom of the press and of information have become a powerful tool for the dissemination of information today. However, although the primary function of the mass media is to inform with objectivity and impartiality, this often does not occur when facing violent and controversial crimes that affect the life of another person, since they cause great social outcry, fear and insecurity in society. In this sense, when the media acts rampantly in the legal sphere, especially in the criminal area, accusing the alleged perpetrator of a crime even before he is subjected to popular trial, it ends up hurting the principle of presumption of innocence guaranteed to the defendant, since it promotes a prejudgment, without respecting the due process of law. Moreover, the principle of impartiality in these cases is also affected, since the media form public opinion and the jurors arrive at the trial session with a pre-formed value judgment about the accused. In view of this, in order to answer the aforementioned problem and achieve the objectives of this research, some important issues were addressed in this paper, such as the constitutional principles of freedom of expression, freedom of the press and freedom of information; the principles that inform the criminal process, especially the principles of presumption of innocence and impartiality, principles of fundamental relevance in the democratic rule of law in which we live, but that often come into conflict with the exacerbated media activity in criminal cases of great repercussion. The historical origin of the jury court in Brazil, its organization and functioning in the choice of jurors, and its specific principles were also discussed. Finally, two cases that had great media repercussion were presented, namely: the "Isabella Nardoni" case and the "Boate Kiss" case. The research method employed was the inductive, from the perspective of a descriptive analytical approach. As to the research technique, the instruments used in the development of this work are characterized by bibliographical and documental research, besides legislation and jurisprudence applied to concrete cases.