The principle of the indivisibility of public criminal proceedings

Abstract

This opinion examines, based on a consultation raised by attorneys in a case involving culpable homicide and injuries in a traffic accident, whether the convergence of culpable conduct requires the indivisibility of criminal action and whether the order accepting an amendment to the indictment can be reconsidered by the sentencing judge. Through doctrinal and jurisprudential analysis, it demonstrates that public criminal action, as much as private action, is indivisible, and that, once continence is formalized, the simultaneus processus becomes mandatory. It concludes that the order of acceptance cannot be reformed by the same court, and that its annulment, in the case examined, violated due process of law, causing an unsanctionable nullity, pronounceable ex officio by the Court, regardless of appeal by the Public Prosecutor's Office.