“Someone has to read the indictment when everyone else is throwing stones,” he told Folha de S.Paulo .
Perhaps the final word belongs to a magistrate who once ruled against him in the Cabral case. “I disagreed with every substantive argument Mariz de Oliveira made,” the judge said privately. “But I never doubted his sincerity. He believes the rulebook is sacred. That is rare in any country.” At 72, Carlos Mariz de Oliveira Teixeira shows no sign of retiring. He continues to take on new cases—a former minister accused of embezzlement, a Portuguese banker facing extradition, a Rio police colonel charged with murder. In each, he will file the same initial motion: “The accused invokes the right to a full defense. The prosecution bears the burden of proof. The presumption of innocence remains.”
In an age of summary judgment, both online and offline, that phrase sounds almost quaint. But Mariz de Oliveira has built a life out of speaking it into the record—loud enough to be heard, quiet enough to be ignored, and persistent enough to outlast the outrage.
Legal scholars point to these cases as illustrations of Mariz de Oliveira’s signature move: he does not necessarily prove innocence; he proves the state’s case is inadmissible. “He is a defender of the cathedral,” wrote law professor Juliana Bello in a 2018 analysis. “He believes that if the state violates its own rules, even a guilty person must walk free. That is not cynicism. That is classical liberalism applied to criminal law.” If the Maia cases made Mariz de Oliveira a regional name, the Sérgio Cabral affair made him a national lightning rod. Cabral, the former governor of Rio de Janeiro (2007–2014), was arrested in 2016 as the central figure in “Operation Car Wash” ( Lava Jato ), the largest corruption probe in Brazilian history. Prosecutors alleged Cabral led a criminal organization that extracted over R$200 million in bribes from construction companies. carlos mariz de oliveira teixeira .pdf
Mariz de Oliveira represented the Daniel family, specifically the mayor’s brother, José Daniel, who believed the official investigation was a whitewash. The attorney pushed for reopening the case, filed suits against police for negligence, and demanded access to sealed intelligence files. In 2020, he succeeded in having a new task force appointed. While no definitive culprit has been convicted, Mariz de Oliveira’s persistence kept the case alive.
Mariz de Oliveira joined Cabral’s legal team in 2017, just as public outrage peaked. The decision was explosive. Cabral was widely reviled—nicknamed “the governor of the toll” for allegedly charging contractors for every public work. Many lawyers had refused the case. Mariz de Oliveira did not hesitate.
In the pantheon of Latin American jurisprudence, most lawyers strive for anonymity—quiet settlements, discreet contracts, invisible influence. Then there is the other kind: the advocate whose name becomes inseparable from the case itself, who walks into a courtroom and shifts the oxygen. Carlos Mariz de Oliveira Teixeira is the latter. For five decades, the Brazilian-born, internationally licensed attorney has built a career not out of winning popularity, but out of defending the indefensible. “Someone has to read the indictment when everyone
“Carlos lost the war, but he won several battles that will help future defendants,” said criminal law expert Fernando Hideo. “He forced Lava Jato to tighten its chain of custody. That is a legacy.” One of the longest-running threads in Mariz de Oliveira’s career is the unsolved killing of Celso Daniel, the mayor of Santo André (São Paulo state) and a rising star of the Workers’ Party (PT). Daniel was kidnapped and murdered in 2002. For nearly two decades, the case languished, plagued by false leads and allegations that the PT itself had covered up links to organized crime.
By a contributing legal affairs writer
He is not a hero. He is not a villain. He is, in the purest sense, a lawyer. And in that title, he finds all the nobility and all the trouble he will ever need. Sources for this feature include: Brazilian Superior Court of Justice (STJ) dockets, Folha de S.Paulo and O Globo archives, interviews with legal analysts (conducted 2023–2025), and academic papers on Lava Jato defense strategies. Direct quotes attributed as reported in public record. “But I never doubted his sincerity
“He taught me that a prosecutor’s narrative is not evidence,” Maia would later say in a rare public thanks. “Carlos dismantles stories, not just facts.” The attorney-client relationship with Maia would span two decades. When Maia became governor of Rio de Janeiro (2007–2010), new corruption allegations emerged involving overbilling in infrastructure contracts. Again, Mariz de Oliveira stepped in. And again, he won acquittals or dismissals in multiple cases, often on technical grounds: expired statutes of limitation, illegally obtained wiretaps, or lack of direct evidence.
“Justice delayed is not justice denied,” he said after a 2021 hearing. “But it is justice wounded. I will not abandon the wound.” In a move that surprised many, Mariz de Oliveira agreed in 2022 to represent former president Jair Bolsonaro’s son, Carlos Bolsonaro, a Rio de Janeiro city councilman, in a case involving alleged digital militias and spying on political opponents. The younger Bolsonaro faced accusations of running a disinformation network. Mariz de Oliveira again leaned on procedural defenses—arguing that the investigation violated constitutional separation of powers.