Article 954 Spanish Criminal Procedure Act: Review of final judgments

1. The review of final judgments may be sought in the following cases:

a) Where a person has been convicted by a final criminal judgment which assessed as evidence a document or testimony subsequently declared false, a confession of the accused person extracted by violence or coercion, or any other punishable act carried out by a third party, provided that those matters are declared by a final judgment in criminal proceedings conducted for that purpose. A judgment of conviction shall not be required where the criminal proceedings commenced for that purpose are discontinued by reason of limitation, of the failure of the accused to appear, of death or of any other cause which does not involve an assessment of the substance.

b) Where a final criminal judgment has been handed down convicting of the offence of prevarication one of the magistrates or judges who intervened by virtue of a decision handed down in the proceedings in which the judgment whose review is sought was given, without which the decision would have been different.

c) Where two final judgments have been handed down upon the same act and against the same accused person.

d) Where, after the judgment, knowledge is obtained of facts or items of evidence which, had they been produced, would have resulted in an acquittal or in a less serious conviction.

e) Where, a preliminary question having been determined by a criminal court, a final judgment is subsequently handed down by the non criminal court competent to determine that question which is contradictory with the criminal judgment.

2. The contradiction between the facts declared proved in a final judgment of autonomous confiscation and those declared proved in the final criminal judgment which may be handed down shall be a ground of review of that judgment.

3. The review of a final judicial decision may be sought where the European Court of Human Rights has declared that that decision was handed down in violation of one of the rights recognised in the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and its Protocols, provided that the violation, by its nature and seriousness, entails effects which persist and which cannot cease in any manner other than by that review.

In that case, the review may be sought only by the person who, having standing to lodge this remedy, was the applicant before the European Court of Human Rights. The application must be made within the period of one year from the date on which the judgment of that Court becomes final.

In those cases, save in those proceedings in which one of the parties is represented and defended by the State counsel, the court clerk shall notify the State Legal Service of the lodging of the application for review and of the decision as to its admission. The State Legal Service may intervene, without holding the status of a party, on its own initiative or at the instance of the judicial body, by the provision of information or the submission of written observations upon questions relating to the enforcement of the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights.

The court clerk shall likewise notify the decision on the review to the State Legal Service. In the same way, where the review is granted, the court clerks of the relevant courts shall inform the State Legal Service of the principal steps carried out as a consequence of the review.

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.