Article 655 Spanish Criminal Procedure Act: Plea of guilty in the ordinary procedure

1. On responding to the transfer of the indictment, the representation of the accused person may state absolute agreement with the indictment which classified the acts most seriously, if there is more than one, and with the penalty sought, counsel stating in addition whether, notwithstanding that agreement, the continuation of the trial is considered necessary.

Counsel shall provide in writing to the person defended the information as to the agreement reached.

If counsel for the accused person does not consider the continuation of the trial necessary and the court, on the basis of the description of the acts accepted by all the parties, considers that the classification accepted is correct and that the penalty is appropriate according to that classification, it shall hand down a judgment by agreement. That agreement may also be given with the new written indictment jointly signed by the prosecuting parties and by the accused party together with counsel, which may not refer to a different act, nor contain a more serious classification than that of the earlier written indictment. The court shall in all cases hear the accused person as to whether the agreement has been given freely and with knowledge of its consequences. Where the court considers the classification formulated to be incorrect, or considers that the penalty sought is not legally appropriate, it shall require the party which lodged the more serious written indictment to state whether or not it maintains it. Only where the party so required modifies its written indictment in such terms that the classification is correct and the penalty sought is appropriate, and the accused person again gives agreement, may the judge or court hand down a judgment by agreement. Otherwise, it shall order the holding of the trial. The trial shall also proceed if there are several accused persons and not all of them state the same agreement.

2. The public prosecutor shall first hear the victim or injured party, even where they have not appeared in the proceedings, whenever that has been possible and is considered necessary in order correctly to weigh the effects and the scope of that agreement, and in all cases where the seriousness or significance of the act or the intensity or the amount involved are especially significant, as well as in all cases in which victims or injured parties are in a situation of special vulnerability.

3. Once the defence of the accused person states its agreement, the president of the court shall inform the accused person of its consequences and shall then require that person to state whether agreement is given. Where the court entertains doubts as to whether the accused person has given the agreement freely, it shall order the holding of the trial.

4. Where the accused person or persons dissent solely as to the civil liability, the trial shall be confined to the evidence and argument on the points relating to that liability.

5. Agreements as to the adoption of protective measures in cases of limitation of criminal liability do not bind the court. After the ratification of the accused person, it shall hand down without further steps the judgment which is appropriate according to the mutually accepted classification, and may not impose a penalty greater than that sought.

6. The judgment by agreement shall be handed down orally and shall be recorded in the minutes with a statement of the operative part and a brief statement of reasons, without prejudice to its subsequent drafting. If the prosecutor and the parties, having learned the operative part, state their decision not to appeal, the judge shall, in the same act, declare orally that the judgment is final and shall rule, after hearing the parties, upon the suspension of the penalty imposed or its substitution, where appropriate. The court shall also determine the deferral of the pecuniary liabilities, and the requirements and calculations of the sentence of the penalties imposed in the judgment shall be carried out so far as possible.

7. Judgments by agreement shall be appealable only where they have not respected the requirements or terms of the agreement, and the accused person may not challenge on substantive grounds an agreement freely given.

8. Where the accused is a legal person, the agreement must be given by its specially designated representative, provided that the representative holds a special authority. That agreement, which shall be subject to the requirements set out in the preceding paragraphs, may be given independently of the position adopted by the other accused persons and its content shall not be binding in the trial held in relation to them.

If that penalty is not the appropriate one according to that classification, but a greater one, the court shall order the continuation of the trial.

The trial shall also proceed if there are several accused persons and not all of them state the same agreement.

Where the accused person or persons dissent solely as to the civil liability, the trial shall be confined to the evidence and argument on the points relating to that liability.

Working translation prepared by Société Juridique from the consolidated Spanish text published by the Official State Gazette. It has no official status: the only authoritative version is the Spanish original, available at the Official State Gazette and reproduced verbatim in our Spanish-language entry for this provision. Source: Royal Decree of 14 September 1882 approving the Spanish Criminal Procedure Act.