Deputy Ramon Agramonte (PRD-La Romana) announced that a team of legislators will begin work on a bill that will modify the newly-introduced Penal Code. In his statements to support his proposal to adapt the Penal Code less than one month after its formal introduction, Agramonte told the Chamber of Deputies, “It is a good code, but not for Dominican society.” Agramonte said that the newly-instituted Penal Code requires understanding, but it also has many “deficiencies.” The legislator said that the tools given to the National Police and the Judicial Departments are insufficient to cope with the requirements of the new legislation. La Romana’s deputy told his colleagues that they would “adjust the code to the Dominican reality” and adding, “This code can only be applied in a North American (US) reality, a French reality or a German or European country, because they have the resources.” Agramonte pointed out that the DR does not possess a mobile crime lab to investigate crime scenes and establish a chain of possession of the evidence.
The sophistication of the new penal code hit home at the Chamber of Deputies. The PRD spokesperson in the Chamber of Deputies spoke up after chamber president Alfredo Pacheco complained to his colleagues that a judge, in compliance with the new code, had released the three suspects involved in the armed assault on his son last week near his home. The District Attorney of the National District, Jose Manuel Hernandez, explained that the three had not been identified by the victim, and therefore the judge could not allow them to remain in jail in preventive custody.