The death penalty of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The use of the death penalty as a type of criminal punishment in Russia. What can the death penalty be imposed on?
The full text of Art. 59 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation with comments. New current edition with additions for 2020. Legal advice on Article 59 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
1. The death penalty as an exceptional measure of punishment can be established only for special serious crimes encroaching on life.
2. The death penalty shall not be imposed on women, as well as to persons who have committed crimes under the age of eighteen years, and to men who have reached the age of sixty-five by the time the court sentenced them.
2.1. The death penalty is not imposed on the person extradited Russian Federation a foreign state for criminal prosecution in accordance with international treaty Of the Russian Federation or on the basis of the principle of reciprocity, if in accordance with the legislation foreign country who extradited the person, the death penalty for the crime committed by this person is not provided for or non-application death penalty is a condition of extradition, or the death penalty cannot be imposed on him on other grounds.
3. The death penalty by way of pardon may be commuted to life imprisonment or imprisonment for a term of twenty-five years.
Commentary on Article 59 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation
1. The commented article establishes the death penalty as a type of punishment.
The death penalty is an exceptional punishment. The right to live - essential right a person and a citizen, provided for by Art. 20 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation. A person can be deprived of this right only in exceptional cases by a court decision when committing especially grave crimes against life. The death penalty of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation is provided for in five corpus delicti, namely Part 2 of Art. 105, art. 277, art. 295, art. 317, art. 357.
The procedure and conditions for the execution of the death penalty are provided for in Art. 184-186 PEC RF.
2. The death penalty cannot be applied to persons listed in Part 2 of the article being commented on.
In connection with the fact that Russia was admitted to the Council of Europe in February 1996 (whose requirement for the member states of the Council is the abolition of the death penalty), the question arose about the suspension of sentences for which the sentence in question was imposed, as well as about the abolition of the death penalty. According to Part 2 of Art. 20 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, the death penalty, pending its abolition, may be established by federal law as an exceptional punishment for especially grave crimes against life when the accused is granted the right to have his case tried by a jury.
By joining the Council of Europe, Russia assumed the obligation to abolish the death penalty, Protocol No. 6 to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms was signed, providing that the death penalty is abolished and no one can be sentenced to death or executed (Art. one). The fact that after the signing of the said Protocol Russia has not yet made changes to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and has not renounced the death penalty as a form of punishment cannot be regarded as a failure to fulfill Russia's international obligations.
3. For more details on the possibility of using the death penalty in the Russian Federation, see the resolution of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation of 02.02.99 N 3-P and the definition of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation of 19.11.2009 N 1344-O-R, as well as the definition of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation of 15.05.2007 N 380- O.
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1. The death penalty as an exceptional measure of punishment can be established only for especially grave crimes that encroach on life.
2. The death penalty shall not be imposed on women, as well as to persons who have committed crimes under the age of eighteen years, and to men who have reached the age of sixty-five by the time the court sentenced them.
2.1. The death penalty shall not be imposed on a person issued by the Russian Federation by a foreign state for criminal prosecution in accordance with an international treaty of the Russian Federation or on the basis of the principle of reciprocity, if, in accordance with the legislation of the foreign state that issued the person, the death penalty for the crime committed by this person is not provided for or the non-use of the death penalty execution is a condition of extradition, or the death penalty cannot be imposed on him on other grounds.
3. The death penalty by way of pardon may be commuted to life imprisonment or imprisonment for a term of twenty-five years.
Comments to Art. 59 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation
1. The death penalty, closing the one given in Art. 44 of the Criminal Code list is the most heavy punishment: it consists in depriving the convicted person of the most important good - life.
2. One of the conditions for Russia's admission to the European Community is the abolition of the death penalty in our country. In this regard, in 1998, the President of the Russian Federation imposed a moratorium on the execution of sentences that imposed the death penalty. But on February 2, 1999, the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation gave an opinion on the inconsistency of the commented article with Art. 20 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, which establishes that the death penalty "pending its abolition may be established by federal law as an exceptional punishment for especially grave crimes against life when the accused is given the right to have his case tried by a jury." Since jury courts have not yet been created in all constituent entities of the Russian Federation, the country does not guarantee that a jury will consider all criminal cases for crimes for which the law provides for the death penalty, as required by the Constitution of the Russian Federation. After the publication of the said conclusion The Constitutional Court RF courts of the country stopped passing death sentences. At the same time, the provisions of the Criminal Code concerning the death penalty remain in force, and after the monstrous acts of terrorism in Buinaksk, Volgodonsk, Moscow, Beslan, the number of supporters practical application the death penalty has increased significantly.
3. Although the Criminal Code, having introduced the death penalty into the system of punishments, does not call it temporary, the temporary nature of this punishment follows from Art. 20 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, where the legislator's right to establish the death penalty is accompanied by a clause: "until it is abolished."
4. The death penalty is defined in art. 59 as an exceptional punishment. Its exceptional character is as follows.
Firstly, it is provided for only for five especially grave crimes related to encroachment on human life (part 2 of article 105, article of article 277, 295, 317 and 357 of the Criminal Code).
Secondly, the scope of its application is limited to the circle of persons by gender and age of the perpetrators; it is not assigned to: women; persons who have committed a crime under the age of 18, regardless of their age at the time of sentencing; men who have reached the age of 65 at the time of sentencing, regardless of the age at which the crime was committed.
Thirdly, the death penalty can be replaced by imprisonment for life or for a term precisely specified in the law - 25 years. The appeal of a convicted person with a petition for pardon constitutes his right and entails obligatory consideration by the pardon commissions under the heads of the subjects of the Russian Federation, and then by the President of the Russian Federation.
Fourth, the criminal executive legislation establishes a number of additional guarantees against the execution of unjustified death sentences: the obligatory presentation of opinions by the Chairman of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation and the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation on the absence of grounds for lodging a protest against the court verdict by way of supervision.
5. According to the law, the basis for the execution of the death penalty is the person who entered legal force court verdict, the above-mentioned conclusions of the Chairman of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation and the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation, as well as a notice of rejection of a petition for pardon or an act of refusal of the convicted person to apply for pardon (part 4 of article 184 of the CEC of the Russian Federation).
The death penalty is executed non-publicly by firing squad. The administration of the institution in which the death penalty is carried out informs the court that passed the sentence, as well as one of the close relatives of the convicted person, about the execution of the sentence.
The presented study will analyze legal basis exclusion of the death penalty from the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The death penalty is one of the oldest punishments known to Russian criminal law and has existed for many centuries. In 1875, the famous pre-revolutionary scientist in the field of criminal law A.F. Kistyakovsky wrote in his "Elementary Textbook of General Criminal Law" that no question "enjoys such fame and such a property of attracting the spirit of research as the death penalty." One cannot but agree with the above thesis, since and in modern Russia the question of the abolition of the death penalty is relevant and controversial. There are many supporters of the death penalty and its opponents. Among the supporters of the death penalty are: V.I. Kolesnikov, S.V. Kurginyan, V.F. Zhirinovsky and others. Opponents of the death penalty: GM Reznik, AM Makarov, V.D. Zorkin, G.A. Gadzhiev, V.P. Lukin and others.
Part 2 of Art. 20 of the act of supreme legal force - the Constitution of the Russian Federation of 1993, established that the death penalty, pending its abolition, can be established by federal law as an exceptional punishment for especially grave crimes against life when the accused is given the right to have his case examined by a jury. Also, the death penalty as one of the types of punishment is enshrined in paragraph "and" of Art. 44 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Art. 59 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation defines the death penalty as an exceptional punishment that can be established only for especially grave crimes that encroach on life. After analyzing the sanctions of the special part of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, it can be argued that the analyzed punishment is applied in Part 2 of Art. 105, art. 277, art. 295, art. 317, art. 357 of the Criminal Code. The principle of humanism (Art. 7 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) is reflected in Part 2 of Art. 59 of the Criminal Code: the scope of the death penalty is limited to the circle of persons by sex and age of the perpetrators; it is not assigned to: women; persons who have committed a crime under the age of 18, regardless of their age at the time of sentencing; men who have reached the age of 65 at the time of sentencing, regardless of the age at which the crime was committed.
To implement their international political, economic, a number of legal interests The Russian Federation joined the Council of Europe in 1996. The condition for the RF accession to the Council of Europe was the recognition and ratification of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. Art. 2, as well as Protocol No. 6, excludes the possibility for the countries - parties to this international treaty to provide for the death penalty for any crimes in their legislation. The exception is crimes committed during war or in the presence of an imminent threat of war. The signing of this Protocol and the imposition of a moratorium on the use of the death penalty in peacetime - essential condition membership in the Council of Europe. In accordance with the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of May 16, 1996 N 724, Russia confirmed these intentions with reference to the fact that Art. 20 of the Constitution allowed the use of the death penalty only temporarily, and in 1997 signed Protocol No. 6. However, to date, the above protocol has not been ratified. This collision is used by some supporters of the death penalty, mistakenly referring to the illegality of the Protocol on the territory of the Russian Federation. The mistake is that Vienna Convention 1969 (recognized by the Russian Federation) establishes that the state that signed the treaty must behave in accordance with the treaty prior to its ratification.
With the introduction of the moratorium, starting in 1997, the death penalty sentences passed by the courts were not carried out, and the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, by its decision of February 2, 1999 No. 3-P, also banned the imposition of the death penalty until the entry into force of the corresponding federal law ensuring the rights of the accused to have his case examined by a jury, as required by Art. 20 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation. Anything else would contradict the principle of equality before the law and the court, the requirement of a legal composition of the court for each case and could lead to the fact that ensuring the right to fair justice before legal court would discriminate against those who were given the opportunity to take advantage of the jury in their constitutional law on life in comparison with other perpetrators of similar criminal acts.
However, since 2010, courts with the participation of jurors have been introduced throughout the territory of the Russian Federation, the last subjects that introduced this institution judicial system- Chechen Republic, in this regard, the question arose about the use of the death penalty in the Russian Federation. Constitutional Court upon request The Supreme Court made a determination: the fact that Protocol No. 6 has not yet been ratified, in the context of the existing legal realities, does not prevent its recognition as an essential element legal regulation the right to life. The judges also interpret part 2 of Article 20, pointing out that in Russia there are guarantees of the right to life, a comprehensive moratorium on the death penalty, which, according to the meaning of its constituent legal acts, was originally supposed to be short-term. And since this moratorium has been in effect for more than 10 years, during this time it turned out to be legitimate in law enforcement practice and judgments... When making the above definition, the discussion in the Constitutional Court turned out to be. All speakers were unequivocal in favor of no more death sentences. Moreover, the plenipotentiary representative of the Government of the Russian Federation, Mikhail Barshchevsky, emphasized that the public sometimes demands the imposition of death sentences on terrorists, pedophiles, drug dealers and large bribes, but according to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, one cannot be executed for their actions. And the Ombudsman for Human Rights in the Russian Federation, Vladimir Lukin, recalled that our recent history, filled with extrajudicial or pseudo-court death sentences, has turned "this exceptional, as they say everywhere, measure into not at all exceptional, but on the contrary ritually commonplace." Mikhail Krotov, the representative of the President of the Russian Federation to the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, said that the head of state "advocates the gradual abolition of the death penalty," but did not specify when the provision of Article 20 of the Constitution, which would eventually provide for the complete abolition of the death penalty, should be "put into effect". Further development in this direction, the Federal Assembly assumes the adoption of a law on the ratification of Protocol No. 6, the draft of which has already been rejected twice by the lower house of parliament. It is also necessary to introduce appropriate amendments to the Criminal Code so that the death penalty, which is no longer used by the courts, as an alternative punishment along with other sanctions provided for the same acts, was excluded from the text of the law.
In modern legal science there is a dispute about whether the norm of the Constitution of the Russian Federation gives a margin of appreciation for the legislator ( Federal Assembly) regarding the preservation of this type of punishment in the Russian Federation as the death penalty. A.S. Mikhlin believes that the capital punishment, i.e. the institution of the death penalty is seen as operating on a permanent basis. In turn, the chairman of the Constitutional Court V.D. Zorkin, in his Comments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation, published by him, indicates that the norm of the Constitution is focused on the elimination of the death penalty from law and practice. Therefore, one cannot agree with the opinion that the Constitution predetermines the discretionary discretion for the legislator regarding the preservation of such a punishment in Russia. At the time of the adoption of the Constitution, the permissible scope of the use of this exceptional punishment was significantly narrowed: it could only be provided for especially grave crimes against life - in all other cases, by virtue of the Constitution, it was excluded from the criminal law.
So far, the Criminal Code has not been amended accordingly, and its text continues to include the death penalty among the possible types of punishment (Articles 44, 59), which led to the inclusion in new Criminal Procedure Code additional procedures for criminal cases on crimes with which the Criminal Code associates the possibility of using the death penalty (for example, the requirement of unanimity when imposing it by a court). The focus of such innovations on humanization procedural regulation does not serve as a substitute for Russia's constitutional and legal obligations to abolish the death penalty. Moreover, according to Art. 3 of Protocol No. 6, no deviations from its provisions are allowed, and the Council of Europe has already warned the states, not only its members, but also having observer status in it, that they will be deprived of their status in this organization if they do not exclude the practice of using the death penalty ...
According to VTsIOM, 70% of the country's population believe that the death penalty should be used as one of the types of punishment. A conflict situation has developed in the Russian Federation, this is explained by the fact that representatives of the highest executive and judicial authorities, the President, as well as the determining majority of members of the ruling party advocate the abolition of the death penalty or the preservation of the moratorium. This thesis is confirmed by the acts of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, the opinions of representatives supreme power state, the statistics of VTsIOM.
According to the author of the work, the issue of abolishing the death penalty should be resolved at a national referendum, this corresponds to the spirit of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, the democratic principles on which the construction of our state is based over the past 20 years. We believe that it is the people who must resolve such a rather complex and debatable issue.
It is assumed that before the referendum, the media will reflect the sides' points of view on this issue, conduct televised debates, etc. A special federal law should be a consequence of the decision of the referendum. This procedure will completely remove the question of maintaining or abolishing the death penalty.
Anthology of the world legal thought: in 5 volumes. T. 4. Russia XI-XIX centuries. - M .: Mysl ', 1999.S. 720.
Constitution of the Russian Federation 1993 M., 2012.
Criminal Code of the Russian Federation: from June 13, 1996 N 63-FZ // Russian newspaper... - 1996 .-- June 18. (No. 113).
Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms: 04.11.1950 [Electronic resource]. - Electron. Dan. - Access mode: reference and legal system "ConsultantPlus".
Commentary on the Constitution of the Russian Federation / ed. V.D. Zorkina, L.V. Lazareva. - M: Eksmo, 2010, p. 75.
See ibid.
Nagorny S. The highest measure of contradiction [Electronic resource]. - Electron. Dan. - Access mode: http://www.interfax-russia.ru/print.asp?id=53553&type=view— (Date of access: 19.02.2012).
Mikhlin, A.S. The death penalty - should it be in Russia // Zhurn. grew up. rights. - 1998. - No. 10.
Commentary on the Constitution of the Russian Federation / ed. V.D. Zorkina, L.V. Lazareva. - M: Eksmo, 2010, p. 75.
All-Russian Center Public Opinion Research (VTsIOM): Execution cannot be pardoned: where to put a comma? [Electronic resource]. - Electron. Dan. - Access mode: http://wciom.ru/index.php?id=459&uid=13123 - (Date of access: 19.02.2012).
1. The death penalty as an exceptional measure of punishment can be established only for especially grave crimes that encroach on life.
2. The death penalty shall not be imposed on women, as well as to persons who have committed crimes under the age of eighteen years, and to men who have reached the age of sixty-five by the time the court sentenced them.
2.1. The death penalty shall not be imposed on a person issued by the Russian Federation by a foreign state for criminal prosecution in accordance with an international treaty of the Russian Federation or on the basis of the principle of reciprocity, if, in accordance with the legislation of the foreign state that issued the person, the death penalty for the crime committed by this person is not provided for or the non-use of the death penalty execution is a condition of extradition, or the death penalty cannot be imposed on him on other grounds.
3. The death penalty by way of pardon may be commuted to life imprisonment or imprisonment for a term of twenty-five years.
Comments on Article 59 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation
The Constitution of the Russian Federation establishes the priorities of the values of our society. The highest of them, in accordance with Art. 2 are a person, his rights and freedoms. Fundamental human rights and freedoms are inalienable and belong to everyone from birth. Recognition, observance and protection of human and civil rights and freedoms is the duty of the state.
Among the fundamental rights, the right to life stands out, which, if violated, cannot be restored. This circumstance necessitates the most careful approach to solving issues related to the possibility of depriving a person of life. It is on the basis of the above provisions that the Russian criminal law followed the path of reducing the conditions under which for committed crime the death penalty could be imposed. Firstly, this was manifested in the reduction of the types of crimes for which this punishment could be imposed, and secondly, in the reduction of the categories of persons to whom the death penalty is applied. In addition, the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation provides for other restrictions on the use of the death penalty. For example, the death penalty was consistently excluded from the articles of the Criminal Code, which provide for liability for embezzlement on an especially large scale, violation of the rules on foreign exchange transactions, bribery, etc. Currently, the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation provides for the possibility of imposing the death penalty only for crimes related to encroachment on human life. These include: murder under aggravated circumstances (part 2 of article 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation); encroachment on the life of a statesman or public figure (Article 277 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation); encroachment on the life of a person administering justice or preliminary investigation(Article 295 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation); assault on the life of an employee law enforcement agency(Art. 317 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and genocide (Art. 357 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). If, before 1993, the death penalty could not be imposed only on minors who did not reach by the time of the crime eighteen years of age, and women who were in a state of pregnancy at the time of the commission of a crime, the imposition or execution of the sentence, the current Criminal Code of the Russian Federation establishes a prohibition on the appointment of the death penalty to any woman, as well as to persons who have committed crimes under the age of eighteen years, and men who have reached by the court of the verdict of sixty-five years of age.
The prohibition of the use of the death penalty against selected categories convicts have their origins in the principle of humanism and a certain social conditioning. So, the non-use of this type of punishment in relation to minors is due to the fact that at a young age they do not yet have a well-established psyche, do not always adequately perceive the prevailing circumstances, do not have sufficient life experience, to a greater extent than adults, they are subject to someone else's influence. Because of this, the assessment of the social significance of their actions on the part of minors is often difficult.
As for women, practice has shown that they rarely commit crimes for which the death penalty is provided for by law. This took into account the great emotionality, excitability of the female psyche. The practice of imposing punishment on women was also taken into account - an exceptional measure of punishment was imposed on them by the courts extremely rarely.
The prohibition of the death penalty for men who have reached old age is also associated with the rarest cases of their committing the relevant crimes, the practical absence of recidivism and other circumstances that speak of the inexpediency of retaining the death penalty for this category of persons.
The death penalty is also not imposed on a person issued to the Russian Federation by a foreign state for criminal prosecution in accordance with an international treaty of the Russian Federation or on the basis of the principle of reciprocity, if, in accordance with the legislation of the foreign state that extradited the person, the death penalty for the crime committed by this person is not provided for, or non-use of the death penalty is a condition of extradition, or the death penalty cannot be imposed on him on other grounds.
Restrictions on the appointment of the death penalty are related to other circumstances. For example, the death penalty is not imposed on a jury of leniency for preparation for a crime or attempted crime. If the death penalty is imposed, then by way of pardon it can be replaced by life imprisonment or imprisonment for a term of twenty-five years.
The non-use of the death penalty for an unfinished crime is also based on the principles of humanism and justice. In this case, the legislator proceeds from the provision that the death penalty can be imposed only in cases of causing death to other persons. Finally, the circumstances of the crime may be such that the imposition of the death penalty is manifestly unfair. Therefore, the leniency of the jury is a factor vetoing the use of exceptional punishment.
The Constitution of the Russian Federation recognizes the death penalty as an exceptional measure of punishment, which, pending its abolition, can be established by federal law only for especially grave crimes against life. In this case, the accused is given the right to have his case examined by a court with the participation of a jury.
The exclusivity of the death penalty as a measure of punishment is also emphasized in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (Article 59 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). Thus, current legislature allows the possibility of the application of the death penalty subject to the above conditions, and therefore, given view the punishment is legitimate. Nevertheless, it has not been used in Russia for a long time. And this non-use is not at all connected with the absence of crimes for the commission of which the death penalty is possible. What is the prohibition on the appointment and execution of the considered type of punishment? In the legal literature, one can find an assertion about the establishment of a moratorium on the use of the death penalty. At the same time, a moratorium is usually understood as the provisions contained in the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of May 16, 1996 N 724 "On the gradual reduction in the use of the death penalty in connection with Russia's entry into the Council of Europe." However, this Decree did not establish a prohibition on the use of the death penalty, and could not be established, since the President does not have such a right. Therefore, the only legal basis the non-use of the death penalty is the Decree of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation of February 2, 1999 N 3-P, from the moment of entry into force of which and until the entry into force of the corresponding federal law, providing throughout the territory of the Russian Federation to everyone accused of a crime, for the commission of which the federal law the death penalty has been established as an exceptional punishment, the right to his case being tried by a jury, the death penalty cannot be imposed, regardless of whether the case is being considered by a jury trial, a panel of three professional judges or a court in composed of a judge and two people's assessors.
But the said ban on the use of the death penalty is temporary. Formally, this punishment has been preserved in the Russian Federation. Therefore, the society is still discussing the advisability of keeping the death penalty in the criminal law.
It should also be noted here that Russia is a member of the Council of Europe. Protocol No. 6 "Concerning the abolition of the death penalty" (Strasbourg, 28 April 1983) provides that the member states of the Council of Europe, signatory to this Protocol to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, signed in Rome on 4 November 1950, have come to the agreement that the death penalty is abolished and that no one can be sentenced to death or executed (Art. 1). Russia signed the Protocol on April 16, 1997 (decree of the President of the Russian Federation of February 27, 1997 N 53-rp). March 30, 1998 was adopted the federal law N 54-FZ "On the ratification of the convention for the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms and the protocols thereto." This Law ratified the Convention and a number of protocols, among which Protocol No. 6 was not included. It has not yet been ratified.
Thus, the presence of the death penalty in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation is quite legitimate.
However, on the issue of the use of the death penalty, it is currently expressed legal position Of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation.
In accordance with the Definition of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation of November 19, 2009 N 1344-O-R, it was established that the provisions of clause 5 of the operative part of the Resolution of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation of February 2, 1999 N 3-P in the system of current legal regulation, on on the basis of which, as a result of a long moratorium on the use of the death penalty, stable guarantees of the human right not to be subjected to the death penalty have been formed and a constitutional and legal regime has developed, within which - taking into account the international legal trend and the obligations assumed by the Russian Federation - an irreversible process is taking place , aimed at the abolition of the death penalty as an exceptional measure of punishment, which is of a temporary nature ("until it is abolished") and is allowed only for a certain period of time. transition period, i.e. for the implementation of the goal enshrined in Art. 20 (part 2) of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, means that the implementation of this Resolution in the part concerning the introduction of a trial with the participation of jurors throughout the Russian Federation does not open up the possibility of applying the death penalty, including on a conviction based on a verdict jurors. Thus, the death penalty in Russia cannot be applied in the future either.
As noted above, the death penalty is an exceptional punishment. It is impossible to correct a miscarriage of justice in the case of the execution of the death penalty. Therefore, the legislator provides not only special conditions the appointment of the death penalty, but also a special procedure for the execution of the death penalty, which, to the maximum extent, would allow such an error to be excluded. This procedure is regulated by the Criminal Executive Code of the Russian Federation.
The death penalty is executed non-publicly by firing squad. The execution of the death penalty in relation to several convicts is carried out separately in relation to each and in the absence of the rest.
During the execution of the death penalty, there is a prosecutor, a representative of the institution in which the death penalty is carried out, and a doctor.
The onset of the death of the convicted person is ascertained by a doctor. A protocol is drawn up on the execution of the court sentence, which is signed by the persons present at the execution of the sentence.
The administration of the institution in which the death penalty is executed is obliged to inform the court that passed the sentence, as well as one of the close relatives of the convicted person, about the execution of the sentence.