Art. 69 of the Criminal Code. Appointment of punishment for a set of crimes

In the presence of a set of crimes, the guilty person bears for each of them the criminal liability provided for by law. Since he is convicted at once on several articles of the Criminal Code, the question arises of the rules and procedure for the appointment of punishment by the court. The answer to it lies in Art. 69 of the Criminal Code.

What is meant by the aggregate?

The legislator defines a set of crimes as an act of two or more criminal acts for which the person was not held accountable. The exception is cases directly provided for by the criminal law of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation in its Special Part.

In the aggregate of criminal acts, it is deemed necessary to assign punishment for each of them separately (Part 1, Article 69 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). This requirement is based on the principle of individualization of punishment.

Compulsory punishment: principles of appointment

There are three principles that are used by courts when imposing punishment for cumulative criminal acts. They act in relation to both basic and additional types of sanctions.

The first is the principle of absorption. When it is used, a more strict sanction absorbs a less strict sanction, that is, the latter is not actually taken into account and does not affect the total amount or term of punishment.

The second principle is the partial summation of the sanctions imposed by the court. In this case, a less stringent, but not completely, and partially is added to a more severe punishment.

The third principle is expressed in the complete addition of all the appointed penalties. However, the deadline should not exceed more than half the maximum possible punishment for the most serious of all crimes.

It should be noted that the current legislation on the provisions regulating the appointment of punishment for cumulative crimes has undergone significant changes. Current version of Art. 69 of the Criminal Code points to their dependence on which category of gravity belongs to a particular criminal act.

Part 2 of Article 69 of the Criminal Code

If all cumulative offenses are assessed as acts of small gravity or average, or there has been a preparation or attempt on a serious criminal act or a particularly serious one, the final punishment can be imposed on any of the three above principles. That is, it can be absorption or addition (partial or complete). Part 2 of Art. 69 of the Criminal Code requires that the final amount or time limit is less than or equal to half the maximum possible punishment for the most serious of the crimes committed by the perpetrator.

Absorption is carried out in accordance with the hierarchy of types of sanctions, an exhaustive list of which is presented in Art. 44 of the Criminal Code. Of all the possible penalties, the fine is the softest, therefore it is always absorbed.

Part 3 of Art. 69 of the Criminal Code

In the third part of the rule, rules are established for determining the amount and duration of punishment used when at least one of the crimes is qualified as particularly serious or serious. The final term in this case is determined by the principle of addition (partial or complete). It is important that in the end the punishment should not exceed half the maximum possible term of imprisonment for the most serious crime committed by the perpetrator.

The rule, however, has an exception. In those cases when the maximum possible term of imprisonment for the most serious of crimes is 20 years, you can not award a final sentence for a total of 30 years. This approach will conflict with Art. 56 CC. It deals with the fact that the maximum possible term of imprisonment is not more than twenty-five years.

Part 4 of Art. 69 of the Criminal Code: additional sanctions

When recognizing a person guilty of committing several criminal acts, the resolution part of the sentence must contain the type and amount of the punishment imposed on him (basic and additional). And it indicates not only the final term, determined by the aggregate, but also separate for each episode.

According to the requirements of Part 4 of Art. 69 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the same rules apply to the additional punishment as for the basic one. So, it can not exceed the maximum possible size or the period provided by the legislation for this type of sanction with partial or complete addition.

Punishment under part 5 of Article 69 of the Criminal Code

Special attention should be paid to the issue of the imposition of punishment in cases where information on the commission of one or more crimes was obtained after the sentencing on the first occasion. In this case, the time for committing a newly discovered criminal offense in chronology must precede the announcement of a decision by the court. For example, a person was convicted for theft and assigned a certain type of punishment. After some time it turned out that six months before the verdict, the court had another episode of embezzlement of another's property.

In accordance with the comments to art. 69 of the Criminal Code in this situation, at the legislative level, two important circumstances are envisaged. First, despite the fact that there will actually be two verdicts, the punishment (final) is imposed on the totality of criminal acts. Secondly, it is necessary to count off the already served (executed) convict on the first sentence term.

The situation when the convicted person commits the second crime before redemption of his guilt for the first crime, speaks of the insufficient strength of the punishment originally assigned. On the other hand, it is also an affirmation of the fact that the offender who has not taken the path of correction presents an increased danger to society. In this regard, the legislator did not envisage the possibility of appointing a final term on the principle of absorption by a more severe punishment of less stringent punishment.

When assigning punishment for the commission of cumulative crimes, the court must always take into account the age of the guilty person at the time of the commission of all episodes. In judicial practice, it is often possible to find situations when the first criminal act was committed before the 18th anniversary, and the second after. In this case, the punishment for a crime committed before the coming of age, should be appointed within the boundaries that are established in Art. 88 of the Criminal Code.