The former president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, has been sentenced to 27 years and three months in prison after being found guilty of plotting a military coup.
A panel of five Supreme Court justices handed down the sentence just hours after they had convicted the former leader.
They ruled he was guilty of leading a conspiracy aimed at keeping him in power after he lost the 2022 election to his left-wing rival, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
In Brazil, only murder cases go to jury trial, but even then, it’s very different from the US. Here, jurors can interview witnesses and there’s no deliberations between them, they go one at a time to a room with the presiding judge and cast a secret ballot, simple majority convicts or not. All other crimes are decided by the judge from the bench.
Oh, and our judges don’t use gavels…
Good protection against Banksy …
Interesting, thanks for the information. I’m a big fan of jury trial personally but I hope that system works well for you.