The public defenders defensive thesison the drug traffic lawsuits in Bahia and how they are welcomed by the judges.
Public Defenders. Defence. Sentences. Criminal cases. Drug trafficking.
The present work aims to understand how public defenders in the State of Bahiaposition themselves in criminal cases that investigate drug trafficking and howthesetheses are received by the Judiciary. Starting from an exposition on the factual andlegal scenario that involves the lawsuits that investigate these crimes, the workobserves how the defense role played by the Public Defenders intervenes inthisreality. There are several works seeking to understand the reality of these criminal cases, as well as the decisions of the Judiciary involving drug trafficking crimes. However, in the academic field, no studies were identified with a specific focus ondefensive actions. Thus, with a focus on the Public Defenders in Bahia, we seektoanalyze the role of public defense in these lawsuits through the analysis of thedefensive petitions and sentences obtained from 60 legal cases using GroundedTheory as a reference method. From this observation and the interaction betweenthedefensive petitions and the sentences, and the actors behind these two procedural moments, categories were constructed that guided the research findings. Finally, identifying successes and limitations, the work aims to promote reflection onthechallenges posed and build proposals about the performance of the Public Defender inthe State of Bahia and the position they take in the law swits that investigate drugtrafficking