CRITICAL LAICITY AND PENAL PROCESS: CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS (CDA) OF THE SENTENCE AGAINST FATHER EDSON DE OMOLU IN OLINDA-PE

Abstract

Within the scope of Criminal Sciences and secular liberties, this study adopts the perspective of Law as a linguistic phenomenon to understand the legal discourse in the judgment that convicted Pai Edson de Omolu, a babalorixá, in the 1st Special Criminal Court of Olinda/PE, for 'disturbance of the peace'. As a qualitative-descriptive case study, the judgment was collected, and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) was applied. The theoretical framework used included the critical theory of laicity, truth-formation by judicial decision, and due process of law. Finally, a discourse was identified that (re)produces stigmas against African-matrix religions, enabling a precedent for portraying worship as ‘noise’. The study revealed the absence of the prerequisites of laicity and the judge's position, tainted by decision-making as a power above rationality, which does not fulfill the role of protecting minority rights and the principle of criminal due process.