Crime of Lucio Dupuy: the sentence of the murderers will be known on Friday

(SPECIAL ENVOY) Today, the Santa Rosa court held pre-sentence hearing for the brutal crime of Lucio Dupuy, committed in November 2021. The boy’s murderers, Magdalena Espósito Valenti, the boy’s mother and his ex-partner, Abigail Páez, have not been transferred from the prison where they are, the San Luis Penitentiary Complex No. 1, after being found guilty on February 2.

In the room, on the other hand, Cristian Dupuy, the father of the boy, as well as his lawyer, Mario Aguerrido, were present.

This morning’s hearing was a cessation hearing, provided for by the Code of Criminal Procedure, during which the parties will appeal the court’s sentence.

The sentence for the defendants, as confirmed this morning, It will be dictated this Friday at noon.

The hearing was attended in person by Attorney General Máximo Paulucci; prosecutor Verónica Ferrero; the counselors for children and adolescents, Graciela Massara and María Gabriela Manera; and Judicial Office staff. Official defender María Silvina Blanco Gómez, official defender Pablo De Biasi and the defendants will participate remotely from San Luiswhere Espósito Valenti and Páez are still being held.

Prosecutor Ferrero, at the start of the allegations, requested that the two defendants Sean sentenced to life imprisonment because, faced with the crimes committed, the Penal Code only provides for this penalty.

Aguerrido joined the proposalbut added the requirement that the sentence be an indefinite term of imprisonment, an alternative provided for in article 52 of the Penal Code. He based it, among other things, on the extent of the damage caused to “an absolutely vulnerable boy”adding that Lucio’s death was the end of a process of child abuse.

For its part, Blanco Gómez asked the Court to quantify the sentence that would correspond to Páez, because they understand that if life imprisonment were applied – with the regulations in force today in the country – “he will not be released from prison until his death, because at present the life sentence is materially and literally perpetual”. Moreover, he demanded that this quantification be the minimum for lack of antecedents and asserted that the Supreme Court had already established the unconstitutionality of indefinite imprisonment.

Finally, De Biasi, speaking for Espósito Valenti, gave similar arguments. He demanded that the penalty be quantified (he spoke of “a penalty in years”). He argued that the life imprisonment established by the Penal Code is unconstitutional. According to his argument, international treaties prevent the application of “cruel, inhuman and degrading” punishment, and that with life imprisonment, even the defendant would not have access – at some point – to the benefit of probation for her “social rehabilitation”.

In his responses to these grounds, Ferrero stated that “life imprisonment is constitutional and is not contrary to international conventions and treaties”; and Aguerrido remarked that “the Supreme Court has already established the constitutionality of life imprisonment” and that “it is not appropriate to fix it in years”.

Early in the morning, a group of people began to put up posters on the fence of the square, banners demanding justice for Lucio. They are part of General Pico’s “Association Civile Lucio Abel Dupuy”. It is an organization born around the Dupuy family, in this town in the pampas. “We are all asking for the Lucio law”, demands a banner on the black fence that protects the main access to the Santa Rosa Courthouse, at the corner of Avenida Uruguay and El Fortín. The “Law Lucio” project, which will be discussed in the Senate, provides for sanctions for civil servants in the event of a breach of their duties, in cases similar to that of the boy from La Pampa.

You may be interested: Lucio Law: what sanctions does it provide for public officials

“No forgiveness, no forgetting”, signs another large poster, in the colors of Argentina and photos of the murdered boy. “Justice is perpetual” prevails another banner, a slogan that has been repeated around the case of Fernando Báez Sosa.

“We are waiting for justice to be done. Today we want the Court to review the acquittal of the parent’s sexual abuse of Lucito. Please re-read it”Ramón, Lucio’s grandfather, asked before the hearing, in dialogue with Infobase.

“We’re also going to ask for the aggravating factor of gender hatred to be added because Lucito was killed because he was a man, the evidence says so. You can’t ignore the evidence when you have all the receipts on the table,” he insisted.

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