O dilema do quesito genérico: a clemência no Tribunal do Júri brasileiro

Abstract

The Jury Court is an organ of the Judiciary intended to process intentional crimes against life, through judgment by jurors. These jurors, lay judges, decide the case according to their inner conviction, which is not necessarily tied to purely legal theses. This study examines one of the possible verdicts that exemplifies the aforementioned system of evidence valuation: acquittal for clemency. In this context, this research aims to identify the conceptual contours that define the basis for this type of acquittal, as well as to broadly outline the historical and legal trajectory of clemency. Furthermore, it seeks to analyze the details of the supposed conformity between the constitutional values that inform the Democratic Rule of Law and the Brazilian legal system, and the possibility of rendering a verdict based on meta-legal principles, in addition to the impacts of this possibility on the legal certainty of the nation. The method used is hypothetical-deductive, with an emphasis on a bibliographic and documentary approach. Thus, it proposes a reflection on the confrontation between the duty to protect life as a fundamental right and the superlegal hypothesis of acquittal grounded in inner conviction, realized through the generic question introduced into the Jury procedure by Law No. 11.689/2008.