The Superior Court of Justice (STJ) of Brazil annulled on Tuesday, October 14, the conviction of a man sentenced, 15 years ago, to 47 years in prison for triple homicide in an upscale area of Brasília.
Francisco Mairlon Barros Aguiar was released in the early hours of this Wednesday, October 15th.
“I can’t even believe it, today is the happiest day of my life. Much gratitude to all the people who didn’t give up on me, the NGO Innocence who still insisted. Family, friends, I don’t even know what to say”he said, in an interview with TV Globo outside Papuda, surrounded by family and lawyers.
The STJ collective classified the conviction of the man, now aged 37, as a “very serious miscarriage of justice”.
“It is unacceptable that, in the Democratic State of Law, an accused is pronounced and condemned by a court of lay judges, solely based on elements of information from the extrajudicial phase, dissonant with the evidence produced in court and under the scrutiny of the adversary system”reads the decision, cited by the newspaper Terra.
The STJ also considered that there was, throughout the process, a violation of the principles of the presumption of innocence.
The case dates back to 2009, when José Guilherme Villela, lawyer and former minister of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), his wife and the housekeeper were stabbed inside the apartment, ending up dying.
The investigation was marked by contradictions and serious flaws, including unjust arrests and falsified documents. The first inspector in charge of the case ended up being arrested, convicted and expelled from the Civil Police.
In 2010, two suspects confessed to the murders: Leonardo Campos Alves, the building’s former doorman, and his nephew Paulo Cardoso Santana. Both initially said they entered the apartment to steal money and jewelry.
Later, authorities accused the couple’s daughter, Adriana Villela, of involvement in the crime.
She was convicted in the first instance, but the sentence was annulled, and the process ended with her acquittal.
Years later, one of the convicts told the non-governmental organization Innocence Project that Francisco was innocent and that his incrimination had been fabricated.
The NGO filed an appeal with the STJ and managed to obtain the acquittal and subsequent release of Francisco today.