Verification stages of criminal proceedings as means of identification and correction of judicial errors

The sentence of the court rendered in a criminal case must be lawful, justified and fair (Article 297 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation). However, as practice shows, the judge, like any other person, is prone to make mistakes. It is in this case that the criminal procedure law provides for a specific scheme for correcting a judicial error. Namely, in accordance with Federal Law No. 433-FZ of December 29, 2010, judicial decisions that have entered into legal force can be reviewed, exclusively for legality, by two instances: cassation and supervisory. In the latter, the range of court decisions subject to appeal is limited according to Part 3 of Art. 412.1 of the RF Code of Criminal Procedure. While, in general, positively assessing the structure and content of the new cassation proceedings, the authors note that the new version of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation reflects some inconsistent decisions of the legislator. A similar situation develops in the supervisory proceedings, whose regulation, as the authors see it, reflects the failing position of the legislator regarding the scope of the powers of the Presidium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation. Proceeding from this, it is advisable to give the court of the cassation and supervisory instances more powers to assess the actual circumstances of the criminal case, solely within the framework of resolving the issue of the correct application of the norms of the criminal procedure law, which will meet the purpose of the criminal procedure.

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