Abstract

RIOS PATIO, Gino Augusto Tomás  and  ESPINOZA BONIFAZ, Augusto Renzo. The need for the declaration under oath or promise of honor of the defendant as a means of proof. Bol. Mex. Der. Comp. [online]. 2022, vol.55, n.163, e17502.  Epub June 15, 2023. ISSN 2448-4873.  https://doi.org/10.22201/iij.24484873e.2022.163.17502.

The article is based on objective and verifiable data in private practice in the Peruvian criminal process, which is likely to be extended to the countries of the Indo-American region, in which the conceptualization of public opinion about technical defense in a process punishment, border on a skilful exercise not precisely in criminal hermeneutics and dogmatics but in sleight of hand of facts and evidence, such as the fact that generally in Latin American countries, the statement made by the accused is not considered a means of proof but a means of defense, for which reason the jurisdictional decision is not duly considered and, rather, it is assumed that it hinders justice and disturbs the process, from which the inveterate but false idea has arisen that the accused has the right to lie.

This problem, in a guaranteed criminal procedural system, violates the fundamental rights of the offender and the victim, as well as is not functional to the purpose of the process, which is to achieve a satisfactory result in the public interest of contributing to social peace thanks to the solution of the conflict that every crime involves, through achieving justice for the parties involved.

The authors propose an innovative proposal, which consists in that the free and voluntary declaration of the accused, expressed without any coercion, when he does not wish to remain silent, be guaranteed and considered as an authentic means of proof and, therefore, valued in conjunction with other means of proof.

Keywords : Statement of the accused; Criminal procedure guarantee; Ethics in the right of defense.