32 victim’s next of kin were entitled to file a private prosecution without detriment to the prosecutor’s duty to initiate criminal proceedings. On the other hand, Article 428 of the Code of Criminal Proceedings99 provided which unlawful acts call for investigation to be initiated under private prosecution. Crimes against life were not included in said legal provision. In such cases, the State had the duty to initiate immediately and on its own motion the corresponding investigations in order to clarify the circumstances surrounding the death of the victim and to identify, prosecute and, if applicable, punish the perpetrators. 93. In regard to the death of Laura Albán, the judicial authorities considered that it had been the result of an “unintentional crime.”100 The State did not immediately have knowledge of said death and of the circumstances surrounding the event. Therefore, it is essential to establish the moment in which the State first acquired knowledge of the facts in order to institute investigation proceedings on its own motion. 94. Article 15 of the Ecuadorian Code of Criminal Proceedings101 established six ways in which the State could acquire knowledge of an unlawful act, one of which was by means of a complaint. It has been proven that Mrs. Cornejo de Albán appeared before the then State’s Attorney General on August 3, 1995 –seven years and eight months after her daughter's death– in order to file a complaint for the death of Laura Albán. The complaint has not been received by said authority (supra para. 79). 95. In its oral closing arguments, the State asserted that “the attorneys of Miss Albán[-Cornejo]'s parents filed a criminal complaint with the Attorney General’s Office in August, 1995"; and in its written closing arguments, it stated that “it is 99 Article 428 of the Code of Criminal Procedure established that “[t]he only crimes subject to prosecution by a Court of law when a complaint is filed by the injured party shall be: a) Statutory rape perpetrated on a woman between sixteen and eighteen years of age; b) Kidnapping of a woman between sixteen and eighteen years of age having consented to her kidnapping and having willfully followed her kidnapper; c) False slander and serious non-false slander; d) Any damage caused to forests, groves or vegetable gardens constituting private property, either by cutting, barking or destroying trees; or to rivers, channels, creeks, ponds, hatcheries, or any other water deposit, whether by destroying aqueducts, dams, bridges or reservoirs constituting private property or by pouring in substances to kill fish or any other ichthyologic species; or any damage resulting in the death, wound or injury of horses or any other domestic or domesticated animal; or caused by the destruction of fences or closings of any kind, the elimination or change of boundaries, and the closing of pits; and e) Any other crime of unlawful appropriation not listed above. 100 On December 13, 1999, the Sixth Chamber ruled that “as no specific laws providing for MEDIAL MALPRACTICE has been enacted, the conduct has been adapted to the crime define din Article 459 of the Criminal Code, the elements and punishment of which are prescribed in Article 460 ibidem, as an unintentional crime under [the] code, that is to say, an essentially negligent criminal conduct […]” (all capitals in original). 101 Article 15 of the Code of Criminal Procedure established that “with the exception of those cases established in Article 428 of this Code, public criminal prosecution shall begin with a court order to investigate an alleged crime, which shall be based on the following: 1. – an inquiry performed by a competent court or judge ex officio; 2. – a prosecution request; 3. – a criminal complaint 4. – a private complaint 5. – a police report or investigation; and 6. – a superior executive order.