La atenuación de la pena por dilaciones indebidas en el Código Penal español

Abstract

The LO 5/2010 organic law of June 22, introduced in the Spanish Criminal Code, among the modifying circumstances of criminal responsibility, a new mitigating circumstance of undue delays. This paper examines, in the first place, whether such mitigating circumstance has an acceptable basis or not and if this is the best way to confer criminal relevance to the unjustified delay in the delivery of justice, compared to other possible ways. Furthermore, it elaborates on the requirements of the new mitigating circumstance, determining what is meant by extraordinary and undue delay, when can it be said that the delay is not imputable to the defendant and how to establish the lack of proportionality of delay with respect to the complexity of the cause. All this is examined in the context of a critical analysis that reveals all the shortcomings and problems of interpretation in the current regulation.