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- The Portuguese Penal Code was adopted in 1982 and has been revised on several occasions, most recently in 2007. It devotes a whole chapter on "crimes against human life". In fact, the very first crime addressed on that code is murder. The Portuguese Constitution (adopted in 1976) expressly forbids the death penalty (art. 24, § 2) and life imprisonment (art. 30, § 1). Additionally, since 1997, the Constitution does not allow the extradition of anyone who would be subject to any of those two forms of punishment at the requesting country. Unless binding assurances are given that the suspect will not be sentenced to either death penalty or life imprisonment, the extradition must be rejected. The Penal Code states that no person may be sentenced to a prison term longer than 25 years. A multiple murderer - no matter how many homicides committed - will not serve more than 25 years in prison. Likewise, in the case murder is committed in addition to other felonies, the defendant will be sentenced to a single prison term, for a period no longer than 25 years, encompassing the applicable terms for each crime committed. According to the Portuguese Penal Code, only very rarely will a sentence of less than 5-years imprisonment be enforced. In fact, article 75, § 1, states that if an offence is punishable by a prison term or another non-detentive form of punishment, the court should opt for the non-detentive punishment "if this punishment will satisfy adequately the objectives of the criminal law." Therefore, someone convicted to up to 5 years in prison will be put on probation or (if the sentence if for less than 3 years) will simply have the prison sentence suspended. The convicted felon will serve fully the prison term if they commit another intentional crime during the period of suspension or probation. Probation or term-suspension usually will only be denied in the case of criminals with very long criminal records. (en)
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