CNJ archives investigation of judge who cited race in sentence – 08/08/2023 – Power

The CNJ (National Council of Justice) filed, this Tuesday (8), the procedure opened against Judge Inês Marchalek Zarpelon, of the 1st Criminal Court of Curitiba, accused of racism for associating a black defendant with a criminal organization “because of of your race”.

By 9 votes to 2, the counselors evaluated that the magistrate did not increase the defendant’s sentence because he was black and that his stance was not discriminatory.

The majority of the council followed the vote of the rapporteur, the National Inspector of Justice, Luis Felipe Salomão. He assessed that the judge may have been unhappy and careless in the passage used in her sentence, but did not infer any kind of prejudice.

Inês wrote that Natan Vieira da Paz, a 48-year-old black man, “surely” was part of the organization, “due to his race.” The phrase was repeated in three parts of the 115-page document.

The decision gained repercussions with the revolt of the defendant’s lawyer, Thayse Pozzobon, who shared the case on social networks.

In the passage highlighted by Thayse, it appears that Inês wrote that Natan “would certainly be a member of the criminal group, due to his race, he acted in an extremely discreet way regarding crimes and his behavior”.

Salomão stated that race was not used by the judge as an element of conviction for the defendant’s conviction, but rather the content of the evidence collected in the process, such as camera images, telephone interceptions and testimonies.

“It generates ambiguity if the placement of the passage is linked to the previous expression or the following clause. It is an unfortunate, unnecessary phrase, but there was no discriminatory connotation”, said Salomão.

Councilor Mário Maia, however, disagreed, raising the question that the mention of race might not be made if the defendant was white. In addition, he stated that the judge’s conduct did not observe the minimum necessary caution that a magistrate should have.

He defended the opening of an administrative process against Inês and the removal of her duties, but it was an outvoted vote.

In 2020, the General Internal Affairs of the Court of Justice of Paraná (TJPR) also decided to file a disciplinary complaint against the judge. Unanimously, the 23 judges of the Special Body of the state court concluded that there was no discriminatory or racist intention on the part of the magistrate.

The magistrates considered that everything was nothing more than an error in Portuguese and in the interpretation of the sentence, as alleged by the defense of the judge in support.

Francisco Zardo, defender of the judge, stated that the passage in question refers to what was written after, and not before, the sentence.

He said that Inês cited the race factor to describe the discreet conduct he maintained to commit crimes in groups, referring to conclusions from testimonies, images from security cameras and other evidence gathered during the investigation.

Zardo also cited other parts of the sentence in which it was found that the criminal group itself, made up of six other people, used physical characteristics of each member to deceive victims and commit thefts and robberies in downtown Curitiba.

On the occasion, the judge released a note, through the Association of Magistrates of Paraná (Amapar), apologizing for what happened. She stated that her sentence was “taken out of a larger context” and that the defendant’s skin color was not taken into account in convicting him.

“At no time was color used – nor could it be – as a factor to conclude, as the basis for the sentence, that the accused belongs to a criminal organization. The evaluation is always based on evidence,” he said.

“I reaffirm that the skin color of a human being has never served or will serve as an argument or foundation for judicial decision-making. Racism is an intolerable practice in any civilization and does not match the values ​​I defend,” he said in the note.