2 I INTRODUCTION OF THE CASE AND CAUSE OF ACTION 1. The case submitted to the Court. On November 30, 2017, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (hereinafter also the “Inter-American Commission” or “the Commission” or the “IACHR”), in accordance with Articles 51 and 61 of the American Convention and Article 35 of the Rules of Procedure, submitted to the jurisdiction of the Inter-American Court the case of Martínez Coronado v. Guatemala (hereinafter also “the State” or “Guatemala”). The Commission indicated that the case concerns a series of due process violations committed in the context of the criminal trial of Manuel Martínez Coronado (hereinafter also “Mr. Martínez Coronado” or “Mr. Martínez”) for the murder of seven people in the town of El Palmar on May 16, 1995. A guilty verdict was issued in that trial on October 26, 1995, and Mr. Martínez was sentenced to death by lethal injection. On February 10, 1998, he was executed. The Commission held that the use of the element of dangerousness to support criminal responsibility violated the freedom from ex post facto laws, as the concept includes predictions and speculations and is an expression of offender-based criminal law, which is incompatible with the American Convention. The Commission also concluded that the joint defense of Mr. Martínez and his co-defendant violated the right to adequate means for the preparation of his defense and the right to be assisted by counsel provided by the State. Furthermore, the Commission held that the State had violated the right to life by imposing a death sentence despite the above-mentioned due process violations. The Commission then asked the Court to declare the State's international responsibility for the violation of Articles 4(1), 4(2), 8(1), 8(2)(c), 8(2)(e), 9, and 25(1) of the American Convention, in conjunction with Articles 1(1) and 2 of the Convention, to the detriment of Manuel Martínez Coronado, and requested several measures of reparation. 2. Proceedings before the Commission. The proceedings before the Commission were as follows: a. Petition. On October 31, 1997, the Commission received a complaint from Rubén de la Rosa of Guatemala's Criminal Defense Public Service 1 on behalf of Manuel Martínez Coronado. b. Precautionary measures. On October 31, 1997, the Inter-American Commission was presented with a request to grant precautionary measures so that the State would stay the execution of the sentence imposed against Martínez. The Commission notified Guatemala of this request on November 12, 1997, giving it 30 days to present information of relevance to the case. On November 17, 1997, the president of the Supreme Court of Justice responded to the Presidential Human Rights Commission (hereinafter “COPREDEH”) regarding the execution process for Mr. Martínez, with respect to the request made by the Commission. On November 18, 1997, the Commission ordered the State to adopt precautionary measures to stay the execution of Manuel Martínez Coronado. The same day, the State sent the InterAmerican Commission a document with the order of the First Judge of Criminal Enforcement attached, which had set the original execution date as November 21, 1997. On November 19, 1997, the State informed the Commission that because of the new remedy of amparo filed by Mr. Martínez, the execution would be postponed until the remedy had been heard. In the communication received on November 20, 1997, the Supreme Court of Justice declared that it lacked the authority to stay the execution of the judgment, so it denied the requested precautionary measures. After that response, on November 24, 1997, the IACHR 1 Cf. Complaint before the IACHR on October 31, 1997 (IACHR procedural file, folios 272 to 314).