Nearly 2,000 of Costa Rica’s worst criminals could be released early depending on ruling by Constitutional Court

(ICR Archive)

September 24^th, 2015 (ICR News) Nearly 2,000 of Costa Rica’s worst prisoners, from murderers to repeat child rapists, could see their sentences drastically reduced depending upon an upcoming ruling by the country’s Constitutional Court, La Nacion reports.

The figure represents some 14 percent of the total prison population.

The Court began analyzing last week an appeal that claims that a law passed in 1994 that doubled the maximum prison sentence for any crime from 25 years to 50 years was unconstitutional and that proper procedure was not followed in the passing of the reform.

The appeal was filed by Francisco Madrigal, an inmate serving time for a double murder, who claims in his appeal that lengthy sentences cause physical and psychological harm and that proper procedure was not followed in passing the 1994 reform.

A similar appeal filed in 2008 by another prisoner, who killed an entire family, was dismissed by the Court.

But this time, the appeal appears to have some powerful backing.

Minister of Justice, Cecilia Sanchez, who was appointed by the Solis administration this year, supports overturning the 1994 reform – arguing to the Court in July that such lengthy sentences are “cruel and degrading” punishment.

Sanchez said that a sentence of 50 years “is excessive and disproportionate, irrespective of the crimes committed. “

“The possibility that a person can be essentially locked away permanently, with very few chances of ever going free to live a law-abiding life, due to a decision of the State that blocks, almost completely, any chance of freedom is itself a cruel and degrading form of punishment,” Sanchez said in July, adding that such lengthy sentences are incompatible with human dignity in a democratic state, and that the 1994 reform that doubled the maximum sentence did not lead to a decrease in crime.

The Court has not indicated when it intends to to make a decision on the issue.