On Christmas Eve, Bolsonaro’s pardon prioritizes police and military

Measure benefits law enforcement officers and Armed Forces personnel convicted of unintentional crimes

On Christmas Eve, December 24, President Jair Bolsonaro published his pardon that once again benefitted law enforcement officers and Armed Forces personnel convicted of unintentional crimes when on duty.

Pardons are a prerogative of the President of the Republic guaranteed by the Constitution and they have been granted to prisoners in poor state of health, such as those who are blind, paraplegic and quadriplegic and who cannot continue to serve their sentence inside a prison. These rules were maintained in this pardon.

Over the years, important progress has been made in the use of the pardon, such as its application for people convicted of small-scale drug dealing – no longer considered a heinous crime by the Supreme Court – and for imprisoned mothers, people convicted of non-violent property crimes and women in general. Pardons are not permitted, for example, for people convicted of crimes of terrorism, torture, drug trafficking and similar acts considered heinous crimes.

As far as civil society is concerned, pardons are a means of alleviating the serious problem of mass incarceration, by helping to correct the distortions caused by the failures of the current prison system and the justice system.

According to Marcos Fuchs, legal and finance director at Conectas, Bolsonaro has once again used the pardon to enforce what is known as “exemption from illegality” for the police and military. This was a clause of the “Anti-Crime” bill that was removed by Congress in 2019, given its potential to encourage the abusive use of force and the killing of black youth from the poor urban outskirts.

“It is regrettable that this instrument, which should serve to correct criminal justice distortions in the country, has been used to pardon law enforcement officers and armed forces personnel who have been convicted of abusive use of force,” said Fuchs. “Any sign from the public authorities of a lack of accountability for arbitrary killings will encourage the already increasing numbers of killings by the police and have a negative impact primarily on the lives of black youth from the poor urban outskirts, the main victims of State violence in Brazil. Those who are never forgiven by police killings and the desire for revenge,” he concluded.