Our country has a statute of limitations for crimes. It is established by the legislative acts of the state. Such a period for some offenses is relatively short, for others it is estimated in years and decades. There are such violations of the law, according to which there is no statute of limitations. Let's consider in more detail.
general information
The statute of limitations for crimes in the Criminal Code is declared by the 78th article. This document indicates a complete exclusion of liability if a certain period of time expires from the moment of violation of the law. If the deed is assessed as a small level of severity, a two-year period is declared. For the middle degree, the full six-year period is determined, for the severe, a decade. If a person has committed a particularly serious crime, it is impossible to bring her to justice if more than 1.5 decades have passed since the moment of this event.
For the calculation, you need to identify the time of the commission of the wrongful act. Statute of limitations - the time that elapses between this moment and the decision on the case. If a person commits a new criminal act, then for each case it is necessary to calculate separate terms. The course is suspended if the person guilty of the offense evades the investigation, hides from the court. The resumption of the countdown continues from the moment when it is possible to detain the offender. An alternative is a person’s own appearance.
About the nuances
The application of the statute of limitations for a crime is the responsibility of the court. This is especially important if a person committed an act according to which the law requires depriving a criminal of his liberty for life. A similar situation occurs if the punishment for the offense is the death penalty. The court, analyzing the nuances of the case, makes the final decision on the applicability of the term and justifies it.
It is possible to contact the district prosecutor's office, which in some cases deals with applications related to the deadlines. Employees follow the first part of the 78th article.
On examples
Suppose a certain person turned to law enforcement for help, as she drank alcohol with strangers, got into a conflict and became a member of the fight. Such an event (as an example) caused damage that was assessed as minor harm. Police officers investigated the case, but could not determine exactly who caused the damage.
Since the area was not serviced by video cameras, the victim was drunk, and others were unfamiliar, it was especially difficult to establish the details. Suppose the testimony proves that a person himself provoked strangers to a fight. Often in such a situation, the victim on the day of the incident cannot say anything intelligible due to the action of alcohol.
An unidentified person, as can be concluded from the current codes, committed a crime characterized by gravity as small. The statute of limitations for a crime is two years. If it is still not possible to find the guilty party, and no one comes arbitrarily to confess guilt, two years after the incident, the case is closed. The reason indicate the expiration.
Articles and Features
Two years is a statute of limitations for crimes that are rated as a mild severity level. Accordingly, it applies if the case is conducted under the articles of the Criminal Code under the numbers 115 and 116, devoted to the beatings. In the same period, the case of the threat of murder will be closed, the punishment of which is provided by Article 119. Exactly two years will seek the guilty of theft and fraud. The first parts of Articles 158 and 159, respectively, indicate that these acts belong to the category of lungs.
This also includes the possession of narcotic drugs punishable under the first part of Article 228. Two years are necessary to investigate and look for the perpetrator of forgery of documents. The 327th article states that this act belongs to the category of lungs.
Crimes are considered average in severity, which are dealt with in the second parts of Articles 158 and 159. The first deals with theft, the second specializes in fraud. If a case passes by these standards, six full years are considered the limitation period.
Further more
For serious offenses, the statute of limitations for a crime in Russia is estimated at a decade. These include cases punishable by the third and fourth parts of Article 158, 159, which deal with theft and fraud, respectively.
This also includes acts that are judged by the second part of article 228 on the possession of narcotic compounds. If the case involves a conviction under the third part of the 290th article, if the case goes through the 291st, devoted to a bribe, the duration of the consideration and search of the guilty party is a decade.
Finally, especially serious crimes are those that are considered in the Criminal Code in 150, which is dedicated to murder. For 1.5 decades, you can study and search for those responsible if the case is classified according to the first block of article 228, namely, its parts from third to fifth. These regulations are about drug sales.
And everyone else?
To find out the statute of limitations for committing a crime that is not in the list above, you need to refer to the current regulatory acts. First, an article should be identified in the Criminal Code, according to which a committed act is punished. If the document includes several parts, you need to find one that is applicable to a specific offense.
Evaluate the most difficult variant of punishment according to the specified article or its part. Based on it, determine the level of severity. Then, the duration of the case is calculated, taking into account the rules of article 78. They are mentioned above and suggest conducting business for two years to 1.5 decades.
The first part of the specified 78th article contains the conditions under which a person is exempted from liability. This happens when the deadlines expire.
Severity and rules
To correctly determine the statute of limitations for a crime, you need to understand to what level of severity it belongs. To do this, you need to navigate in degrees. Such violations of the law, for which they can be punished for a term of up to three years, are considered minor in gravity. This also includes acts for which the deprivation of liberty cannot be punished in principle.
The average level of severity combines intentionally committed offenses for which they can be punished with a term of imprisonment of up to five years inclusive. If the act is unintentional, punishment is possible up to three years. It also belongs to this class.
They consider serious acts for which they can punish a decade of imprisonment. Particularly severe are all those for which they are punished for an even longer period of isolation from society.
About the subtleties
As mentioned earlier, the expiration of the statute of limitations of a crime takes place after the time specified by laws has elapsed from the moment the act was committed to the day when the sentence becomes full. Some cases of fraud are additionally problematic, because it is not very clear what to consider as the moment the offense ends. The length of the period under consideration varies significantly for acts punishable in different parts of one article.
An illustrative example is the 264th article. The first part deals with cases requiring isolation of the offender from the public for two years. Accordingly, they are of low severity, which means that the duration of the search for the guilty and the sentencing reaches a couple of years. For the following paragraphs, the punishment is stricter. But in the third part of the 159th article, a six-year sentence is provided, which means it is a serious crime, for which the duration of the case study is estimated at a decade. In the previous blocks, the conditions of punishment are milder.
About the most difficult
Murder is one of the most serious crimes known to modern society. Accordingly, for him, a long statute of limitations has been established for criminal offenses than for the bulk of cases considered and punishable by laws. There is an additional category - one for which terms do not exist at all. Even if several decades have passed since the commission of the act, if it is possible to identify the culprit and bring to justice, he is tried and punished.
When analyzing different cases of murder, you need to understand that they differ in specificity. Some occur due to negligence. Possibly mitigating features. All this takes into account the court, qualifying the act. Severity is a category of offense. The more dangerous the deed, the longer the statute of limitations during which law enforcement officials can identify and punish a person.
Technical aspects
The expiration of the statute of limitations of a criminal offense is possible if the time limits declared by Article 78 passed between the date when the act occurred and the moment the decision entered into force. This occurs 10 days after the announcement accompanying the adjudication. These ten days are given to the parties to appeal the determination. The court has the right to cancel the statute of limitations if a crime considered to be classified as especially grave is considered, and no one has been convicted. The term is often canceled if, on occasion, the death penalty should be.
If some person who has committed a serious offense is guided by when and where large and short periods of limitation are applicable and wants to evade punishment, the court suspends the calculation of this period. If the offender is on the run, the case will wait for his capture, only after that the terms will again begin to be calculated in the standard manner. They resume the countdown, as soon as they manage to establish the whereabouts of the person whom the law enforcement authorities were looking for, it turns out to attract her to the case. A person can arbitrarily arrive and write an appearance.
No deadlines!
If the statute of limitations for economic crimes are defined, although for some offenses they reach 1.5 decades, then in the case of some particularly dangerous acts they are completely absent. You can investigate as much as necessary if it is a case of terrorism. The reason for the non-application of the terms is considered genocide, ecocide.
Among the violations of the law, for which they are persecuted for an unlimited time, is the conduct of war in prohibited ways, using bio-chemical weapons. For an unlimited time they will seek the guilty party in hijacking air and water transport. The same rules apply to crimes involving terrorist activities. Cases to be studied under these rules include inhumane methods of taking people as hostages, an attempt on the life of a civil servant.