NewsWhore
05-16-2007, 06:10 PM
The Chamber of Deputies has approved the modification to the Penal Code proposed by former senator Jose Tomas Perez. These changes include, among other things, obligatory preventative custody for repeat offenders in cases involving violent crimes such as homicide, aggravated assault or rape. The changes also provide for 48-hour custody before filing charges, and for arrests without a warrant in cases involving anyone caught in the act or fleeing from the scene of the crime. These modifications were sent to Congress on 20 June 2006, and were then sent to a special Senate commission for study. The Senate passed the bill, but then it had lagged in the Chamber of Deputies until now.
The modifications approval coincides with this week's front-page headlines about an attack on the daughter of Supreme Court of Justice vice president judge Luciano Pichardo. The woman was relieved of her documents, RD$1,000+ in cash and her keys as her young children looked on. She had just arrived at her father's home in the Julieta neighborhood after doing her supermarket shopping at around 3pm on Sunday.
Shortly before, not far from there, seven people were wounded after three men dismounted from a Suzuki Gran Vitara and attempted to rob a sports betting store on Avenida Charles Sumner, Los Prados on the same day. The raid on the betting store was averted when one of the clients confronted the assailants, but was injured when one of the would-be thieves returned fire, injuring six other bystanders. In both cases, the assailants managed to get away.
Supreme Court vice president Judge Rafael Luciano Pichardo called for more drastic measures against crime after his daughter was robbed on Sunday. He attributed the increase in crime to the lack of penalties.
The Supreme Court, which oversees the judicial system in the DR, has itself been blamed for the crime rate because of leniency on the part of some judges who are notorious for their failure to convict drug traffickers.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#6)
The modifications approval coincides with this week's front-page headlines about an attack on the daughter of Supreme Court of Justice vice president judge Luciano Pichardo. The woman was relieved of her documents, RD$1,000+ in cash and her keys as her young children looked on. She had just arrived at her father's home in the Julieta neighborhood after doing her supermarket shopping at around 3pm on Sunday.
Shortly before, not far from there, seven people were wounded after three men dismounted from a Suzuki Gran Vitara and attempted to rob a sports betting store on Avenida Charles Sumner, Los Prados on the same day. The raid on the betting store was averted when one of the clients confronted the assailants, but was injured when one of the would-be thieves returned fire, injuring six other bystanders. In both cases, the assailants managed to get away.
Supreme Court vice president Judge Rafael Luciano Pichardo called for more drastic measures against crime after his daughter was robbed on Sunday. He attributed the increase in crime to the lack of penalties.
The Supreme Court, which oversees the judicial system in the DR, has itself been blamed for the crime rate because of leniency on the part of some judges who are notorious for their failure to convict drug traffickers.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#6)