Simplified procedures for settling criminal cases in the court should be improved

Russian criminal procedure is characterized by the differentiation of its procedural forms. It is possible to hear a case according to the standard procedure, which represents the main type of criminal procedure, and the special procedure, characterized by a simplified criminal procedure proof, the regulation of which is enshrined in Chapters 40 and 40.1 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation (RF CPC). The standard procedure for the trial involves direct examination of evidence by the court in order to establish the facts of the case. Part 4 Art. 302 of the RF CPC states that a "guilty" verdict shall be passed only when the guilt of the defendant in a crime is proved by the totality of the evidence examined by the court. Simplified forms of settling criminal cases are based on different approaches. Part 5 Art. 316 of the RF CPC establishes that the judge in case of the special procedure does not examine and assess the evidence collected in the criminal case, but only studies the circumstances that characterize the personality of the defendant and the circumstances mitigating and aggravating his liability. Thus, currently, the Russian Federation has two fundamentally different types of "guilty" verdicts of the Criminal Court: sentences according to the standard procedure and judicial acts by the court according to Chapter 40 of the RF CPC. It is impossible to believe that the Russian legislator differentiates the court procedure for settling criminal cases, as both the standard and special judicial procedures for criminal cases are different in nature and have a number of basic features, including the different degree of reliability of the conclusion made in proving and in "simplified proving". The existing situation is not satisfactory. The verdict of the court, delivered in the name of the state, must be an act of justice, not merely a decree settling a criminal case on the merits. The ban to appeal the court verdict based on its non-compliance with the factual circumstances of the case discredits the very idea of justice. The provisions of Art. 317 on the inadmissibility of the appeal of the court verdict, delivered according to the special procedure, based on the non-compliance of court findings with the factual circumstances of the case as well as the provisions of Parts 5 and 8 Art. 316 of the RF CPC establishing that the judge in cases of the special procedure does not examine and assess the evidence collected in the criminal cases should be excluded from the criminal procedure law, giving the judge the right to examine the materials of the criminal case necessary for a fair verdict. Such activities will differ from the standard procedure as they assume examining only those circumstances that the court finds necessary to deliver a fair verdict, not all of them and not automatically.

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