Convicts | Justice Can Also Be Wrong - Synopsis
2017
Tiago Palma was convinced that he would be acquitted. So much so that on the day of his sentencing, he brought a gym bag to the courthouse, because he was planning to go training right afterwards. His plans were tragically botched: he was sentenced to 18 years in prison for allegedly being part of a skinhead group that beat a man to death. But scrutinizing the evidence, the truth is that he was only convicted because he could not explain the route he took on the night of the crime. In other words, because he could not prove that he was innocent.
Andreany Vaz was also convicted of murder, along with four other boys. Two eyewitnesses said that he had shot the victim. However, those involved stressed that he had not participated in the crime and was not even at the scene; one of them signed two letters of confession and, in a television interview, confessed to the murder. None of this was enough to secure his acquittal, or at least to have the case reopened.
In "Condemned - Justice Can Also Be Wrong", justice is revealed as not always arresting and convicting the real culprits. In some situations there are clues that were not properly explored and in other decisions that leave us perplexed. In ten cases that range from robbery to murder and sexual abuse, the author Sofia Pinto Coelho, one of the most experienced and prestigious journalists in Portuguese television, takes the lives of people she believes have been convicted without reliable evidence as her starting point for a hard but necessary reflection on our judicial system, which always seems to resist accepting its mistakes.
2015
My Grandfather Luís - Synopsis
Every family has secrets, and they are not always hidden. They often survive in plain sight. In My Grandfather Luís, Sofia Pinto Coelho dares to get closer to the family past. When she discovered her grandfather's old movies and letters in a storage room, granddaughter Sofia was confronted with the story of Luís Pinto Coelho, a law professor and highly respected figure of "Estado Novo". Already retired and with six children, he took on the post of ambassador in Madrid and there he fell in love with the glowing Kit, a North American top-model, free of prejudice. But the country had a heavy hand for those who dared to violate social rules, and "Grandpa Luís" would pay the price for his audacity. For her granddaughter, the question remains: did she grow to love her grandfather?
The Extraordinary Adventures of Portuguese Justice - Synopsis
2009
The stories you will find in this book may seem unusual, strange, even surreal, but they are true. From the story of the judge who solved a noise problem by pouring water into the neighbors' house, to that of a lawyer who had to take his photocopier into court to get a copy of a case. From the judge excommunicated by a shepherd convicted of debts, to the case of the theft of sliced cheese worth 1 euro and 29 cents that went on trial and occupied Portuguese justice for two years, or even the carpenter convicted of having fired a BB gun at Lacindo, the neighbor's cat that dared to devour his dinner.
Journalist Sofia Pinto Coelho, a specialist in matters of justice and law, followed most of the cases reported here and paints a real, amusing, but accurate portrait of Portuguese justice. From the working conditions, to the state of the prisons, and the relationship between judges and lawyers or between prosecutors and the police. It's true that there are stories that seem almost like anecdotes, but there are others that had a tragic effect on the lives of their protagonists.
Through these pages pass people who, when justice came knocking at their door, realized that besides being blind, justice in Portugal can become an absolutely extraordinary adventure.
2005
Journalists and Courts - Synopsis
Can a photographer capture Bárbara Guimarães leaving home with her son on her lap? And a homeless man sleeping in the street? Is the "Santana copos" sketch satire or libel? Should the name of a doctor accused of negligence be divulged? Did you know that Tal&Qual has to pay 20 000 Euros to Catarina Furtado? And why was Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa was convicted of defamation? It is not always easy to draw the boundaries of the right to image, to private life and to a reputation. This book brings together sentences that allow us not only to understand the law, but to see how it acts in practice. From Huberto Delgado to Ballet Rose, from FP25 to Camarate, from Father Frederico to Casa Pia, real cases are used to illustrate the dilemmas of judicial journalism - identifying those involved, the hidden camera, legal confidentiality, professional secrecy…
2000
