Fabíola
Age 3112 Jun 2026
Campinas, São Paulo (Brazil)
Beaten
Fabiola was beaten to death. Her man was arrested on suspicion of her murder.
The first case of a transgender woman's murder registered as femicide in Campinas may become the subject of a legal debate. Fabíola, 31, was beaten to death on the 12th of this month. The accused perpetrator is Danilo Lopes Borges, 32, who was arrested in the act and is currently in custody.
The victim did not have a legally registered name reflecting her social name or gender transition. This document does not preclude her from being considered a transgender woman. However, she is identified in the police report, the arrest documents, and the death certificate with her birth name, [deadname] Dias.
So, Correio Popular asked criminal lawyers, psychologists, and legal experts living in Campinas whether, "strictly speaking," the perpetrator should be brought to trial as the perpetrator of a femicide (maximum sentence of 40 years) or a homicide (maximum sentence of 30 years).
“State courts have differing interpretations. The problem becomes more delicate when the victim is a transgender woman, since article 121-A of the Penal Code, which defines the crime of femicide, refers to sex and not gender,” explains law professor Carlos Alberto Marchi de Queiroz.
Professor and criminal lawyer Haroldo Cardella believes that the fact that the victim is identified by her birth name will be central to the debates in this case. “However, regarding the 'rigor of the law,' the widely consolidated trend in Brazilian jurisprudence, especially in the Supreme Federal Court (STF) and the Superior Court of Justice (STJ), is that the application of the femicide provision does not depend on a formal change of name or gender at the registry office.”
