Legal Certainty in Judge's Decision Against Perpetubuhananak Criminal Actors Sentenced to Prison Under Special Minimum Limits (Case Study Number 38 / Pid.Sus / 2019 / Pn Pdg)

Abstract

The Judge's decision is closely related to how the Judge expresses his opinion or consideration based on the facts and evidence in the trial and the Judge's confidence in a case he is trying. Even though the Judge has free or independent power to impose his decision, the prison sentence is still below the specific minimum limit, causing controversy or debate, especially regarding what legal norms are used by the Judge in deciding the case, so that the Judge leaves aside the special minimum threat which is expressly regulated in the Child Protection Act. The verdict in the form of imprisonment imposed under this special minimum threshold can be considered too light and it is feared that it will not cause a deterrent effect for the perpetrators in the future and may damage the legal certainty as mandated in the Child Protection Act. This can be seen in the Padang district court's decision Case number 38 / Pid.Sus / 2019 / PN Pdg, the judge handed down a prison sentence below the specific minimum against the Defendant. The method used in this research is normative juridical method. This type of research is descriptive using secondary data. The results of the study show that 1) Judge's considerations in imposing a criminal sentence under the threat of a specific minimum prison sentence against the Defendant are based more on non-juridical considerations which are then used as judicial considerations of the Judge by observing the reconstruction of legal facts revealed at the trial and guided by Circular Supreme Court Number 1 Year 2017; 2) Judge's consideration of the conviction under a special minimum threat as the case above raises legal uncertainty both at the normative level and at the practical level.