The Prosecutor's Office proposes that mafia crimes not be tried by a popular jury

Murders such as the one that occurred in June on Balmes Street, where a man was shot in the head at ten in the morning in front of a National Police station, or that of another individual who, in May, was shot while having a drink with his family on a terrace in Poblenou, have forced the Prosecutor's Office to move.

The Public Ministry proposes that, in those crimes committed by criminal organizations, the popular jury be exempt from judging these cases and the task be assumed by a professional court. The proposal aims to prevent the anonymous citizens who are chosen to form a popular jury from being endangered and protect them from possible bribes or threats from these powerful mafias. The alternative is to maintain the jury in these cases but improve the protection of the members of the popular court to fully ensure their safety.

This is a position defended by the jury service of the Barcelona Prosecutor's Office that proposes opening the debate on the appropriateness of this measure at a time when Barcelona and its metropolitan area have been the scene of numerous settling of scores between mafia groups and before all of these cases reach trial. This proposal was debated and endorsed internally during a coordination meeting of specialist prosecutors from the jury that was held in Madrid on September 22 and 23 of last year.

The prosecutor Félix Martín, a prominent member for years of the Special Jury Service of the Barcelona Prosecutor's Office, now puts this issue on the table publicly in an article in La Vanguardia, which you can read on the next page, under the title: 'Let's not demand that jurors be heroes.' Precisely, the prosecutor, author of the article, was the speaker at those days in a session titled "Crimes against life in the context of a criminal organization/group" that addressed this issue. The prosecutors Specialized experts were in favor of improving the protection of jurors or excluding their participation in cases of mafia crimes to adapt to a reality that is experiencing an upswing in this type of crimes committed by organized crime.

The debate is open and it will be the chief prosecutor of Barcelona who will decide whether to incorporate this proposal in her 2026 report, in which she takes stock of the activity of the Public Ministry and provides legislative modifications for improvement. In the 2025 report, it was proposed, for example, that penalties be increased for tapping the light in marijuana plantations, a measure that was approved in the last reform of the Penal Code to punish multiple recidivism.

The popular jury, which is made up of nine anonymous citizens chosen at random – in a process similar to that of the designation of polling stations – is the institution that has been in charge for 30 years of prosecuting all crimes of homicide and murder, also those committed by criminal organizations.

The 2015 Penal Code reform incorporated an aggravating circumstance that establishes that, when a homicide has been committed by someone who belongs to a criminal organization, the penalty will be permanent, reviewable prison.

However, practice shows that this is not always the case. On some occasions, even though a homicide has been committed by a mafia group, prosecutors and private prosecutors cannot claim the aggravating circumstance because the accused's membership in a certain group cannot always be proven.

In October of last year, for example, two men were sentenced to 20 years in prison for the murder of Valentín Moreno, a former protagonist of the black chronicle of Catalonia who moved in the underworld. Those convicted were a hitman and the facilitator of the crime. Although it was clear that it was a contract murder, it could not be proven to which organization the accused belonged or who had ordered it and, as a consequence, the Prosecutor's Office could not request permanent reviewable prison.

Another argument to propose the reform is the danger of the current groups. The latest crimes committed in Barcelona have been the work of opposing gangs from Montenegro and Serbia who maintain an open war throughout Europe and who do not hesitate to shoot in a busy area of the city at any time with the aim of shooting down their target.