Yes, it is a fundamental right: every conviction can be reviewed by a higher court (appeal before the Provincial Court or the High Court of Justice and, where applicable, cassation before the Supreme Court). A good share of cases are won at the appeal stage.

They are short and absolute: 3 days for reconsideration (reforma), 5 days for appeals against court orders, 10 days against judgments and 5 to give notice of cassation. An appeal filed out of time cannot be cured; that is why we prepare the appeal before the decision is issued.

An extraordinary appeal on strictly defined grounds: infringement of law, breach of procedural form or violation of fundamental rights. It demands very specific technique; the agreements of the Plenary of the Second Chamber determine what is admissible and what is not.

The review of acquittals is very limited: the higher court cannot worsen the situation by re-assessing personal evidence without reinforced safeguards. It is one of the case-law lines most protective of the defence.

Yes: reconsideration, appeal and complaint against orders for detention, interception measures, dismissals or transformation of the procedure. The investigation is litigated appeal by appeal; waiting for the trial is usually too late.

The extraordinary route against final judgments when new facts or evidence emerge that demonstrate innocence, or convictions obtained through falsification or judicial misconduct. It is exceptional, but it exists and we work on it.

The defence must argue the relevance and necessity of each piece of evidence (Supreme Court judgment STS 736/2022) and, if it is refused, enter a formal protest in order to plead lack of defence on appeal. A key piece of evidence wrongly refused can nullify the trial.

Only the party that proposed the witness can request an adjournment, showing their relevance; if it is refused, a protest must be entered and the questions that were to be put must be submitted (STS 321/2020). These technical details decide appeals.

Confession before knowing of the proceedings, reparation of the damage, undue delay, serious addiction or intense emotional states, among others. Building and proving mitigating circumstances is an essential part of the strategy: they can lower the sentence by one or two degrees.

If the proceedings suffer extraordinary delays not attributable to the accused and disproportionate to their complexity, the sentence is reduced. It is highly relevant in large-scale cases lasting years.

Yes: full or partial reparation to the victim at any time before the oral trial is a mitigating circumstance, and can be treated as highly qualified. Well planned, it turns prison sentences into suspendable ones.

Yes, on a scale: from incomplete defence of exemption to ordinary mitigation, depending on the real degree of impairment when committing the act (including withdrawal syndrome). It requires serious expert evidence.

A mitigating circumstance for an intense emotional state caused by powerful and immediate stimuli. The courts apply it restrictively: the stimulus, the temporal proximity and the loss of control must be proven.

With an unlawful attack, rational necessity of the means used and absence of provocation. If any requirement is missing, it operates as an incomplete exemption with a substantial reduction of the sentence.

Article 21.7 allows mitigation in situations of similar significance to the statutory mitigating circumstances: a late but useful confession, or “quasi-limitation” where the complaint is filed on the edge of the limitation period after years of inactivity by the injured party.

Carrying out the act with means that ensure the result and eliminate the victim’s defence. It is the most serious aggravating circumstance in offences against persons: it turns homicide into murder.

Recidivism, abuse of superiority, disguise, payment and, after Organic Law 6/2022, discriminatory motives (including aporophobia). Challenging a wrongly applied aggravating circumstance can reduce the sentence by years.

Gender violence comprises specific offences against a partner or ex-partner; the aggravating circumstance of “gender reasons” (Article 22.4) can apply to almost any offence if that discriminatory motive is proven. That it is not applied automatically is defence territory.

Only with prior final convictions for offences of the same nature and records neither expunged nor eligible for expungement: we always verify it, because it is frequently misapplied. Multi-recidivism (three or more) even allows the sentence to be raised by one degree.