The causes of extinction of criminal liability are those specific circumstances that occur after the offence has been committed and nullify the criminal action or the execution of the sentence. These circumstances mean that criminal liability has disappeared.
Article 115 of the Criminal Procedure Act regulates the causes of extinction of criminal action, including the death of the guilty party, although civil action against his heirs remains, which can only be exercised through civil proceedings.
Article 130 of the Criminal Code refers to the extinction of criminal spam database liability, one of which is the death of the offender. This derives from the rule of personality of penalties, that is, the penalty cannot be transmitted to the heirs , unlike what happens with civil liability, which is not extinguished. It is transmitted to the heirs, if they accept the inheritance.
Stages of the procedure
The consequences will be different depending on the stage at which death occurs.
Instruction phase
The case will be dismissed if the death occurs during the investigation. According to article 637.3 of the Criminal Procedure Law, the judge will issue a free dismissal order, that is, the criminal proceedings will be totally and definitively suspended. However, this order does not affect the rest of the suspects.
For example, in the black card trial there were 66 defendants, 65 of whom sat in the dock after one of them died before the opening of the oral trial.
Oral trial phase
An acquittal will be issued. According to the Supreme Court ruling of March 22, 1993 , it states that said acquittal cannot contain in the proven facts references to actions of the deceased, since said person, having died, cannot be tried .
Miguel Blesa died after having lodged an appeal before the Supreme Court. This appeal must continue, with the possibility that its ruling will revoke or confirm the National Court's conviction.
If the judgment becomes final and determines financial liability, claims may be made in civil proceedings against the heirs of the deceased.
There is already a conviction sentence
If the person convicted by a final judgment dies, his death will mean the filing of the proceedings or enforcement due to extinction of criminal liability, in accordance with article 130 of the Criminal Code.