Pau Rigo Case: Jury Acquittal Targeted by Prosecution Appeal

Pau Rigo, a man from Mallorca, found himself at the center of a high-stakes legal battle after a 2018 home invasion ended with a claim of self defense. The case drew wide attention because the trial concluded with the acquittal of Rigo, a verdict that surprised many observers who believed the events warranted closer scrutiny. The acquittal did not close the matter, however, as prosecutors later sought to overturn the decision by requesting a retrial, arguing that the popular jury had based its verdict on flawed reasoning or incomplete evidence. In the wake of the acquittal, his defense team contended that the prosecution had no right to reopen the case on appeal because no objections to the verdict or the jurors’ instructions were raised during the trial. They pressed the point that the prosecution should have voiced concerns at the moment the decision was announced, not afterward. The defense suggested that allowing a retrial based on unvoiced objections would undermine the jury system and create a troubling precedent for how appeals are used in criminal cases. Campaigning to preserve the acquittal, the defense asked the High Court of Justice of the Balearic Islands to reject the Prosecutor’s appeal without further scrutiny. The argument framed the appeal as an attempt to revisit a decision that had already received full consideration and that did not reflect a timely protest from the prosecution at the trial stage.