Judicial practice: acquittal. The grounds for acquittal. Statistics of acquittals in Russia

In the system of procedural rulings, the acquittal takes a special place. There are a lot of questions for the researchers studying this type of solution. As the statistics of acquittals shows, recently the number of cases of recognition of the innocence of the subjects has increased. What is the reason for this trend? Is it a consequence of poor performance of investigative bodies or court bias, the result of mistakes or the implementation of the principle of adversarialism?

The notion of sentence

The adoption of the resolution acts as the final stage of the proceedings. The sentence is a decision that is pronounced by the court at a meeting on the question of innocence or the guilt of the subject, as well as the application or non-use of the punishment to it. This definition does not cover the whole range of issues that are resolved by the final decision. Nevertheless, it reflects its essence: it is only by a court sentence that a person can be found guilty of an act and only according to him can a person be subject to criminal punishment. In this resolution, the procedural function, which is the resolution of the process, is most fully realized.

Value

The verdict is considered to be the only procedural act to be executed on behalf of the state. This is fixed at the legislative level in Art. 296 CCP. The verdict gives an assessment of the charge brought before. The Decision acts as a substantive remedy. The act itself is only an element of prosecution. There are other, equally important components. They form a key evidential fact. These elements include the subject, the subjective side and the object. The prosecutor approves the indictment so that it becomes the subject of the proceedings in full, and not in part. When making a decision, the authorized person examines the thesis of the conclusion. All accusation is allowed in essence with a detailed verification of the circumstances. The sentence is an act of criminal procedure, the core of decisions that are taken before and after it. This decision not only completes the stage of production in the first instance. The sentence finally resolves the main issues of legal proceedings. It acts as the final outcome of the work of law enforcement agencies in terms of legal and actual consequences.

Classification

In Art. 309 of the Code of Criminal Procedure provides for two types of final decisions on the act in question: a conviction and acquittal. All questions in the solution must be categorically answered. The subject acting as the defendant is either convicted or acquitted. The authorized person takes only one decision. This rule also extends to cases where several charges are brought against one person at the same time or the crimes of several persons are considered within the framework of the proceedings. In this regard, the verdict as a single document can be against the citizens of the prosecution, and others - the acquittal. In one act, punishment may be imposed on one, the release of others may be ordered.

Recognition of innocence

An acquittal on a criminal case can be considered on three sides:

1. As a procedural act.
2. As a legal institution.
3. As a complex of procedural relations.

The latter aspect characterizes the functional aspect of the category. It is he who is more concerned with the researchers in the immediate decision-making process. The law establishes the grounds for acquittal. The subject can be considered innocent if one of three conditions exists:

1. There is no action event.
2. The participation of a person in the commission of an act has not been proven.
3. The actions of the defendant do not constitute a crime.

In the presence of any of these conditions, the subject is considered fully rehabilitated and his non-involvement in the events is confirmed.

An Important Moment

In the case where an acquittal is made, the subject in writing is explained the procedure for restoring his rights. In addition, the person authorized to take decisions takes measures to compensate for damage caused as a result of the unlawful bringing of a citizen to justice and his unlawful detention. Here it should be noted that the decisions on the civil action statement and compensation for harm will be influenced by the grounds for acquitting the acquittal. The legislator, in this connection, obliges the decision precisely to formulate the condition by which the person's innocence is recognized. In the resolution there should be no proposals that cast doubt on the person's non-participation in the event.

Characteristic

An acquittal is taken if the crime event is not identified. This means that the deed act was never committed. The events indicated in the charge, as well as their consequences, did not arise or took place regardless of someone's will (for example, under the influence of natural forces). An acquittal for lack of corpus delicti assumes that the person's actions:

1. Not an illegal act.
2. Formally, they may contain signs of a crime, but in view of insignificance they do not pose a danger to society.
3. They are not illegal actions under the direct order of the law. For example, it can be behavioral acts in extreme necessity, within the necessary defense, etc.

An acquittal is also accepted if the illegality and punishability of actions are eliminated by a legislative act, which entered into force after they were committed.

Inadequate participation

An acquittal is taken if an unlawful act has been established, but the materials investigated during the proceedings exclude or do not confirm its commission by the accused subject. By the same circumstance, the authorized person is guided even when the available evidence is not sufficient to make a reliable conclusion about the culpability of the citizen and objectively excluded the possibility of collecting evidence of involvement in the conduct of the information both during the trial and during the additional investigation. The subject, thus, realizes his right to public, without any red tape, his release from responsibility. Judicial practice shows that acquittal in such situations is often not accepted. And the materials are returned for additional investigation. At the same time, the persecution ceases. As was said above, it is not possible to gather information refuting the person's innocence neither in court, nor in the course of an additional investigation. Such actions are a departure from the principles of procedural law. The release of the subject takes place also in cases when the court comes to the conclusion that the act was committed by another person. In this connection, after the entry into force of the decision, the materials are sent to the prosecutor. He, in turn, takes measures to establish the subject to be brought to trial as a defendant.

Is it possible to cancel an acquittal?

In Art. 379 of the Code of Criminal Procedure stipulates the conditions under which the adopted decision is reviewed. According to Art. 385 of the Code of Criminal Procedure can cancel the cassation instance. To do this, the representation of the prosecutor must be filed , the complaint of the victim (his relatives) or directly of the person recognized as innocent, but disagreeing with the circumstances of the decision , is sent.

A special case

Justifiable sentences in Russia can be taken at a meeting with the participation of a jury. In this case, a special procedure for reviewing such decisions is foreseen. The sentence can be canceled on the basis of a prosecutor's submission or a complaint from the victim (the representative of the defense party) in the presence of such violations of the CPC that restricted the participants in the proceedings for evidence or they influenced the essence of the issues decided before the jury and, accordingly, the answers to them. The cassation instance can not go beyond these conditions and review decisions on other circumstances.

Inadequacy of conclusions to actual circumstances

Sometimes acquittals in Russia are taken without taking into account the material circumstances. Thus, in the course of one of the proceedings, two citizens were found not guilty of attempted murder of a person by dropping it from a height of 17 m into a river in a bound state. The court, in deciding to acquit the subjects, referred to the "instability" of the evidence that the victim gave in the preliminary investigation, as well as his statement that "he invented everything." From the materials, however, it was clear that the victim himself filed a statement to bring to justice certain individuals who had committed unlawful acts against him. The victim repeatedly, including with the departure to the scene, consistently told about the circumstances of his dropping into the river from the bridge. The court unreasonably did not take into account the testimony of witnesses. At the same time, turnout was considered as a mitigating circumstance. However, the court did not properly assess its content. Upon reconsideration, an indictment was pronounced, which was subsequently left unchanged by the cassation instance.

Assessment of the materiality of violations of the CCP

In part 2 of Art. 381 specifies the circumstances under which acquittals can be reviewed. In Russia, however, not always the violations mentioned in the norm can entail the unconditional appointment of a second hearing. So, for example, if there was a violation of the defendant's right to the assistance of an interpreter or a lawyer, or he was not allowed to participate in the debate, or the last word was not given, the cancellation of the verdict would be meaningless. This is due to the fact that, formally, these circumstances did not worsen the provisions of the subject, did not affect the decision of an unreasonable, illegal or unjust decision. The cancellation of the verdict will turn the hearing into a farce, as the result will be predetermined in advance. Revision of the decision in this case is possible only if there is a complaint of a subject recognized as innocent if he does not agree with the conditions for the adoption of this decision.

Conclusion

The sentence must be implemented, and the punishment - executed only after the entry into force of the decision. In this case, this rule operates regardless of the attitude towards the act of those to whom it applies. An acquittal in the presence of any of the grounds for its removal may have reliable facts supporting them. In these cases, there is a positive proof of innocence. In the conditions of judicial proceedings, however, it is not always possible to determine this with certainty. Doubts of an irremovable character can refer to the characteristics of the composition, the conclusions about the absence or presence of an event of a crime, the involvement of a subject in the commission of an act. The law interprets any of them in favor of the accused. In this case, the acquittal confirms the lack of evidence of guilt, that is, the lack of objective confirmation of its existence.