In the system of procedural decisions, acquittal has a special place. Researchers studying this type of solution have a lot of questions. According to statistics of acquittals, the number of cases of recognition of the innocence of subjects has recently increased. What is the reason for this trend? Is it the result of poor-quality work of the investigating authorities or the bias of the court, the result of errors or the implementation of the principle of competition?
Concept of sentence
The adoption of the decision serves as the final stage of the proceedings. The verdict is a decision that is passed by the court at a meeting on the issue of the innocence or guilt of the subject, as well as on the application or non-application of the penalty to him. This definition does not cover the whole range of issues that are resolved by the final resolution. Nevertheless, it reflects its essence: only by a court of law can a person be found guilty of an act and only in accordance with it can a person be subjected to criminal punishment. This decision most fully implements the procedural function, which consists in resolving the process.
Value
The verdict is considered to be the only one of the procedural acts, decided on behalf of the state. This is fixed at the legislative level in Art. 296 Code of Criminal Procedure. The verdict provides an assessment of the previously charged. The decision acts as a substantive means. The act itself is only an element of the charge. There are other equally important components. They form the key evidence. These elements include the subject, the subjective side and the object. The prosecutor affirms the indictment so that it becomes the subject of the proceedings in full, and not in part. When making the decision, the authorized person shall examine the thesis of the conclusion. All charges are resolved on the merits with a detailed verification of circumstances. A sentence is an act of criminal process, the core of decisions that are made before and after it. This decision not only completes the production stage in the first instance. The verdict finally resolves the main issues of legal proceedings. It acts as the final result of the work of law enforcement agencies in terms of legal and actual consequences.
Classification
In Art. 309 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, there are two types of final decisions on the act in question: a guilty verdict and an acquittal. All questions in the decision should have a definitive answer. An entity acting as a defendant is either found guilty or acquitted. An authorized person makes only one decision. This rule also applies to cases when several charges are brought against the same subject at the same time or the crimes of several persons are considered in the course of the proceedings. In this regard, a sentence as a single document may be indictment against some citizens, and acquittal against others. In one act, punishment may be imposed on one, the release of others may be decreed.
Plea of innocence
An acquittal in a criminal case can be considered from three parties:
- As a procedural act.
- As a legal institution.
- As a complex of procedural relations.
The latter aspect characterizes the functional side of the category. It is he who, to a greater degree, relates researchers to the direct decision-making process. The legislation establishes the basis of the acquittal. An entity may be found not guilty if one of the following three conditions exists:
- Missing action event.
- The participation of a person in the commission of an act has not been proved.
- 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 involvement in the events is confirmed.
Important point
In the event that an acquittal is issued, the subject shall be explained in writing the procedure for restoring his rights. In addition, a person authorized to make a decision takes measures to compensate for damage caused as a result of unlawful prosecution of a citizen and his unlawful detention. It should be noted here that the decisions on civil action and compensation for harm will be affected by the grounds for acquitting. The legislator, in this regard, obliges in the decision to precisely formulate the condition by which the innocence of a person is recognized. The resolution should not contain proposals calling into question the non-involvement of the subject in the incident.
Characteristic
An acquittal is adopted if the crime event is not identified. This means that the sane act was not committed at all. The events indicated in the prosecution, as well as their consequences, did not arise or took place regardless of one's will (for example, under the influence of natural forces). The acquittal for the lack of corpus delicti suggests that the actions of the person:
- Not an illegal act.
- Formally, they may contain signs of a crime, but due to their insignificance they do not pose a danger to society.
- Not an unlawful act under the direct direction of the law. For example, it can be behavioral acts in extreme need, within the necessary defense, etc.
An acquittal is also adopted if the unlawfulness and punishability of the actions are eliminated by the legislative act, which entered into force after their commission.
Lack of participation
An acquittal is adopted if the wrongful act has been established, but the materials investigated during the trial exclude or do not confirm its commission by the accused. The same circumstance is guided by the authorized person even when the evidence is insufficient to draw a reliable conclusion about the guilt of the citizen, and the possibility of collecting information in the course of the proceedings and during the additional investigation is objectively excluded. The subject, in this way, exercises his right to publicly release his liability from any red tape. Judicial practice shows that in such situations, acquittals are often not accepted. And the materials are returned for further investigation. In this case, the persecution subsequently ceases. As mentioned above, it is not possible to collect information refuting the involvement of the subject either in court or during an additional investigation. Such actions are a departure from the principles of procedural law. The release of the subject also takes place in cases where the court concludes that the act was committed by another person. In this regard, 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 the accused.
Can a conviction be revoked?
In Art. 379 of the CPC secures the conditions under which a decision is reviewed. According to Art. 385 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the decision may be revoked by the cassation instance. To do this, a prosecutor’s submission must be filed , a complaint must be submitted from the victim (his relatives) or directly from a person who was found not guilty but disagreeing with the circumstances of the decision.
A special case
Acquittals in Russia may be taken at a jury trial. In this case, a special procedure for reviewing such decisions is provided. The verdict can be canceled upon the submission of the prosecutor or a complaint from the victim (representative of the defense) in the presence of such violations of the CCrP that limited the participants of the proceedings to present evidence or they influenced the essence of the issues to the jury and, accordingly, the answers to them. The cassation instance may not go beyond these conditions and review decisions for other reasons.
Inconsistency of findings with factual circumstances
Sometimes acquittals in Russia are taken without taking into account significant circumstances. So, in the course of one of the proceedings, two citizens were found not guilty of attempted murder of a person by dropping him from a height of 17 m into a river in a bound state. The court, when deciding to acquit the subjects, referred to the “instability” of the testimony that the victim had given as part of the preliminary investigation, as well as his statement that “he had made up everything”. From the materials, however, it was clear that the victim himself had filed a statement in order to prosecute specific individuals who had committed unlawful acts against him. The victim repeatedly, including with a trip to the scene, consistently talked about the circumstances of dropping him into the river from the bridge. The court unreasonably did not take into account the evidence of the witnesses. Moreover, the confession was considered as a mitigating circumstance. However, the court did not properly evaluate its content. Upon re-examination, an indictment was issued, which was subsequently upheld by the cassation court.
Assessment of the significance of violations of the Code of Criminal Procedure
In h. 2 Article 381 The circumstances under which acquittals may be reviewed are identified. In Russia, however, violations not always specified in the norm may lead to an unconditional appointment of a second hearing. So, for example, if during the trial 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 annulment of the sentence would be meaningless. This is due to the fact that formally these circumstances did not worsen the situation of the subject, did not affect the decision of an unreasonable, illegal or unfair decision. The cancellation of the sentence will turn the hearing into a farce in this case, since the result will be predetermined in advance. Revision of the decision in this case is possible only if there is a complaint of the subject, recognized not guilty, if he does not agree with the terms of this decision.
Conclusion
The sentence must be implemented, and the sentence must be executed only after the decision comes into force. Moreover, this rule applies regardless of the attitude to the act of those to whom it applies. An acquittal in the presence of any of the grounds for its delivery may have reliable facts confirming them. In these cases, there is positive evidence of innocence. In a trial, however, this cannot always be determined with certainty. Doubts of an irremovable nature may relate to signs of composition, conclusions about the absence or presence of a crime event, the subject's involvement in the commission of the 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 presence.