A validade das condenações por tráfico de drogas baseadas no depoimento policial no âmbito do Tribunal de Justiça do Estado da Bahia

Abstract

The legal procedures of drug cases in Brazil originate usually from instantaneous apprehensions that take place as a consequence of routine activity from the military policy in public spaces. Such activity is focused on low income neighborhoods, without preliminary investigations. This project analyzes the legal validity of drug trafficking condemnations based on the testimony of military police officers who participate in arrests in flagrante delicto, with a particular focus on legal decisions made in the Justice Tribunal of the state of Bahia, Brazil. Despite the precariousness of penal instruction in processes related to drug trafficking violations and the occurrence of illegalities during police activity, the overwhelming majority of cases lead to condemnations, violating a series of individual rights of vulnerable individuals. To accomplish this goal, this project first investigates evidence theory and the search for truth in penal processes. Second, it contends with the unique nature of the most common evidence used in drug trafficking proceedings: the testimonial proof. Third, it highlights the probatory means used to prove the materiality and authorship of this kind of infraction, and the procedural aspects present in the Law 11.343/06, which contributes to the penal ambiguity in the distinction between infractions of drug trafficking and use. Lastly, this work studies the jurisprudence in the Justice Tribunal of the state of Bahia, based on the analyses of twenty decisions proffered by both classes of the two existing criminal offices, demonstrating the position generally adopted in relation to the core themes of this work. Therefore, exposing relevant elements observed in the cases analyzed. Finally, this work criticizes the isolated use of police testimony to support condemnations. Such condemnations violate not only the principle of In Dubio Pro Reo, but the article 155 of the Brazilian Penal Procedure Code [Código de Processo Penal], since it employs elements of police investigation exclusively in the formation of judicial convictions, although the judicialization of police testimony in drug trafficking cases is solely theatrical.