The controversy over delays in resolving criminal cases and judicial deadlines come to the fore again in the framework of a case in which one of the defendants can go to trial with eight years of pretrial detention, that is, he will be detained for 8 years without even a first instance verdict.
Hector Ariel Martinez He is accused of aggravated homicide for the use of a firearm for an event that occurred in La Plata. He was arrested on May 20, 2018, but has a trial date for the year 2026. He will be tried through the jury trial mechanism that was requested by the defense. The suspect is assisted by the lawyer Ricardo Callaba who requested a hearing before the Oral Criminal Court (TOC) V of La Plata in which he will request the “release for excess of reasonable term of preventive detention”, as confirmed by the professional to 0221.com.ar.
“We want to go to trial now because Martínez is oblivious to the crime, we are sure of his innocence, but we cannot continue waiting three more years for the trial, that is why we request the hearing in which we will request that he come to trial in freedom,” added the lawyer.
For this fact there is also another defendant. Is about Cayetano Nahuel Muino who is assisted by a private lawyer. “The trial was going to take place this year, due to a problem with the co-defendant’s defense, it was suspended and rescheduled, but only for 2026,” Callabá explained.
Given this panorama, the hearing promoted by the defense of Martínez will be held next Tuesday, April 25, at the TOC V headquarters.
Before the social, preventive and mandatory isolation due to the coronavirus, cases took no less than 3 years to reach an oral trial, that was the minimum time. After almost 2 years of a sharp reduction in the volume of management due to the pandemic, the magistracy’s agendas worsened again in relation to the delays in reaching a verdict and eventual first instance sentence. The causes are multiple, but they can be listed as urgent to solve the appointment of magistrates (judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys) in vacant positions due to retirement, the creation of new oral courts. This task corresponds to the Executive and Legislative powers of the province of Buenos Aires.
