285. Regarding the argument of the appellants that the exculpatory testimonial evidence was
not assessed, the court of appeal stated that the complaints expressed in this regard
“correspond to evidence that was not used by the court to substantiate its conclusions” and
that, “therefore, it is evidence […] that the court is not required to assess, but only to state the
reason why it was rejected.”
286. Expert witness Claudio Fuentes Maureira, proposed by the State, indicated that the fifth
considerandum of the judgment of the court of appeal (supra para. 283) involved “an overrestrictive interpretation of the norms of the Criminal Procedural Code.”309
287. The Inter-American Court is not required to analyze whether a judgment of a domestic
court interpreted and applied domestic law correctly or incorrectly, but only to determine
whether or not this violated a provision of the American Convention. The foregoing reveals with
absolute clarity that the Temuco Court of Appeal did not make a comprehensive examination of
the decision appealed, because it did not analyze all the contested factual, probative and legal
aspects on which the guilty verdict was based. This means that it did not take into account the
interdependence that exists between the factual determinations and the application of the law,
so that an erroneous determination of the facts entails an erroneous or improper application of
the law (supra para. 270.d).
288. In addition, this Court notes that the judgment that denied the appeal made an
interpretation of the Criminal Procedural Code (supra para. 284) that permitted evidence that
the appellants considered relevant to support their defense not to be assessed, merely
indicating the reasons why it was “rejected.” In this regard, it should be emphasized that, when
deciding the objections submitted by the appellant, the higher court hearing the appeal to which
a person convicted has the right under Article 8(2)(h) of the American Convention must ensure
that the guilty verdict provides clear, complete and logical grounds in which, in addition to
describing the content of the evidence, it sets out its assessment of this and indicates the
reasons why it considered – or did not consider – it reliable and appropriate to prove the
elements of criminal responsibility and, therefore, to disprove the presumption of innocence.
289. It is also possible to note that, with regard to the argument of the defense regarding the
improper assessment of the evidence (alleging that numerous testimonies were not assessed
individually, so that the conclusions derived from them did not take into account the
particularities of each of these statements and the supposed contradictions between them), the
Court of Appeal stated that it “agreed with the Public Prosecution Service that the law makes it
obligatory to analyze all the evidence, but not to analyze each piece of evidence individually,
thus the criterion of the court was correct in setting out the testimony on those aspects on
which the statements corroborated each other.” By proceeding in this way, the higher court did
not resolve the appellants’ complaint or disagreement regarding the evidence, which referred
not only to the alleged obligation to make an individual assessment of the evidence, but also to
specific objections and comments on the content of explicit evidence and the conclusions that
the lower court had derived from this evidence. In this regard, this Court underlines that, when
a guilty verdict is appealed and in order not to make the right to be heard in equal conditions
illusory, the higher court that decides an appeal must ensure that the lower court has complied
with its obligation to describe an assessment that takes into account both the inculpatory and
the exculpatory evidence. Even if the lower court chooses to assess the evidence together, it
has the duty to explain clearly the points on which agreement exists and those on which there
is disagreement, as well as to refer to any objections that the defense may have raised on
specific points or aspects of this evidence. These aspects raised by the defense in the appeal
against the guilty verdict were not sufficiently decided by the higher court in this case.
309
Cf. Statement made by expert witness Carlos Fuentes Maureira before the Inter-American Court during the public
hearing held on May 29 and 30, 2013.
100
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