Aspects of guilty plea and procedure of guilt admittance, new judicial institutions for a criminal trial of higher quality

Autor: Rodica Aida POPA
Publicat în: Challenges of the Knowledge Society 2017
Disponibil online: aici.
Abstract: During the broad reform process that has taken place in recent years for the criminal proceeding activity, following the entry into force of the new Criminal Procedure Act on February 1st 2014, there have been changes of some legal institutions from the old Criminal Code, such as the procedure of admitting the deeds the defendant is held responsible for (art 320 from former Code of Criminal procedure) by its provisions in the content of art 374, alignment 4, as it has been modified by Government Emergency Ordinance and introducing new ones, such as the guilty plea (art 478-488) under the circumstances of modifying GEO nr 18/2016 a special procedure meant to insure the judging of causes with celerity. Both procedures have a common component given by the guilt plea from the defendant, having an additional condition in the case of the guilty plea, besides the aforementioned one, which is the one of accepting the legal classification of the offence for which the criminal proceedings
were commenced. The two legal institutions ensure the compliance with the procedural guarantees of the right to a legal counsel of the defendant, sanctioning this one, taking place with a reduction of the sentence, under conditions stipulated by law. Furthermore, by admitting the guilt and the legal classification of the offence by the defendant found guilty, in the two procedures also takes place a confirmation of the legality and compliance of the evidence submitted in the course of criminal proceedings.
Keywords: simplified procedure; guilty plea; admittance of guilt; legal classification of offences; quality of the criminal proceedings.