The courts have agreed to at least 1,233 sentence reductions in application of Organic Law 10/2022, of September 6, on the comprehensive guarantee of sexual freedom, known as the ‘only yes means yes’ law, according to data collected by the General Council of the Judiciary until November 1, of the Supreme Court, the National Court, the Superior Courts of Justice and the Provincial Courts. These resolutions have led to at least 126 releases.
Most prison reductions have been decreed by provincial courts (1.1018). The National Court has decreed 1, while the Supreme Court, 32 of a total of 158 reviews.
According to the CGPJ, the 1,233 sentence reductions represent 31.1% of the total of those reviewed in the Supreme Court, the National Court, the Superior Courts of Justice and the Provincial Courts.
The data offered does not include the sentencing reviews that may have been processed by the Criminal Courts, competent to prosecute crimes against sexual freedom punishable by up to five years in prison, given the difficulty of collecting this information from single-person bodies, according to the CGPJ. .
After the euphoria over the entry into force of this norm, approved in September 2022, which responded to a feminist demand to put consent at the center of any relationship, it was realized that the norm had a “gap” from which some rapists could benefit.
The then team of the Ministry of Equality, headed by Irene Montero, denied such a gap, but reality prevailed. The news of reductions followed one another, with Montero refusing to review the rule, but which ended up forcing President Sánchez to intervene. The norm was lowered but it has not prevented the reduction of the sentences of some rapists or their release from prison (due to sentence reduction).
The unexpected consequences of this law (a norm praised by the EU for its feminism and on which it is working to develop a directive) and, above all, the insistence on not modifying it, are behind the fact that Montero is no longer on the new team of Government.