Análise do julgamento de uma pessoa A’uwẽ-Xavante por um Tribunal do Júri em Mato Grosso

Abstract

This research has as object of study the process of judgment of an indigenous person of the A’uwẽ-Xavante ethnicity, since the communication of the criminal fact, in August 2001, until its judgment by the Jury Court of Barra do Garças-MT, in August 2018. In this type of court, responsible for prosecuting intentional crimes against life, it is up to a collegiate of popular people (seven ordinary citizens) to declare in accordance with their free conviction and in a secret and individualized manner, whether the crime happened and whether the defendant is guilty or innocent. This is a Criminal Procedure involving indigenous people within the indigenous territory: the defendant was accused of the death of his nephew while hunting within the São Marcos Indigenous Land, municipality of Barra do Garças-MT. The crime fact had different versions, according to the position of the witnesses in the Xavante social organization. Nobody would have seen what happened; no necroscopic examination of the body to ascertain the cause of death or ballistics examination were carried out, and yet the popular verdict recognized the intentional modality of first-degree murder. The research problem is guided by the construction of legal truth that led to the condemnation of the indigenous defendant who was judged according to the “white man’s law” and in a language different from his own. This position exposes an unequal starting place in the Jury and allows reflection on the relationship of the Brazilian State with indigenous peoples and the opening to other forms of conflict resolution, ways that consider the ethnic and cultural diversity of the Amerindian population involved.