THE ADMISSIBILITY OF PSYCHOGRAPHED LETTERS IN THE BRAZILIAN JURY COURT: CONSTITUTIONAL LIMITS, EVIDENTIARY THEORY, AND STATE SECULARISM

Abstract

This article analyzes the admissibility of psychographed letters as evidence before the Brazilian Jury Court in light of evidence theory, constitutional guarantees of criminal procedure and state secularism. The research problem is whether documents allegedly produced through communication with deceased persons may be submitted to jurors as legally reliable evidence. A qualitative approach is adopted, using the deductive method and bibliographic and documentary research, with analysis of the Federal Constitution, the Code of Criminal Procedure, legal scholarship, academic studies and case law, especially Criminal Appeal No. 70016184012 of the Rio Grande do Sul Court of Justice and RHC No. 167,478/MS, decided by the Sixth Panel of the Superior Court of Justice in 2025. The results indicate that the controversy is not solved merely by the religious origin of the document: the decisive issues are epistemic reliability, verifiability, adversarial testing and the risk of extra-rational influence on jurors who decide according to intimate conviction. It is concluded that, under the current understanding of the Superior Court of Justice, psychographed letters should not be admitted as evidence, although in limited situations they may serve as investigative information without evidentiary value before the jury.