Murder in itself is a cruel crime, because as a result of it a person loses the most valuable thing - his life.
However, even murder is divided into various categories depending on the presence or absence of mitigating or aggravating circumstances.
Article 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation describes murder with extreme cruelty as one of the types of qualified crime.
At the same time, the article itself does not decipher what actions are considered cruel, and how the fact of its manifestation will be proven.
General concept of murder
Murder is the intentional killing of another person. This definition is contained at the beginning of Art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, and it best describes the essence of the criminal act.
For all other types of murders, which are not characterized by direct intent, there are separate articles in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. They relate to the regulation of murders due to negligence, in a state of passion, when the limits of necessary defense are exceeded.
Premeditated murder involves only one type of responsibility - actual imprisonment.
The amount of imprisonment will be determined based on the characteristics of the offense. For ordinary murder without aggravating circumstances, the convicted person will be sentenced to 6-15 years in prison.
Responsibility
Who is subject to
The subject of a crime is a sane individual who was 14 years old at the time of the commission of the unlawful act.
Particular cruelty as an aggravating circumstance
Particular cruelty is characterized not only by the methods of committing actions, but also by the time of their application.
- Before the murder. In this case, the perpetrator uses torture, torment, and psychological pressure against the victim.
- During torture, this is a method of committing murder in which a person experiences physical or mental suffering.
- After the murder. This aggravating circumstance applies only in cases where it is not the victim who suffers, but the witnesses to the incident.
What is meant by murder with extreme cruelty?
Causing death with particular cruelty is reflected in paragraph “e” of Part 2 of Art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
It is represented by one item from a large list of aggravating circumstances, in the presence of which a more severe punishment will be imposed.
To qualify a murder committed with cruelty, it is necessary to prove the fact that the offender was aware that by his actions he was causing suffering to the victim before his death.
This fact cannot always be confirmed by the nature of the wounds on the victim’s body. Therefore, often the forensic expert does not assume that the deceased person experienced severe suffering and agony before his death.
Composition of a brutal crime
The corpus delicti of a murder committed with particular cruelty is similar to the usual corpus delicti of the intentional deprivation of human life.
However, there are still differences in it:
- The object of the crime is not only a person’s life, it is also his moral state, which suffers from torture and humiliation. In addition, the killing of a person in front of his family and friends is recognized as cruelty, which, of course, gives rise to the safety of other persons as an object.
- The objective side involves all kinds of methods of murder: instruments of torture, bullying, methods of humiliation and violence against the dying victim.
- A sane person who has reached the age of 14 can act as a subject in a case of murder with particular cruelty . Such a young age confirms the social danger of this crime.
- The subjective side includes not only the direct intent to kill, but also the deliberate infliction of physical and moral torment on the victim. Murder with the use of extreme cruelty is the most common type of this crime.
Signs of a brutal murder
What is cruelty? Resolution of the Plenum of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation No. 1 provides explanations as to what actions can be qualified as cruelty shown to the murdered person.
Their list looks like this:
- During the murder or before the death of the victim, torture, mockery or torture were used against him. Even if all this was done with the aim of finding out some information from him.
- The method of murder involves inflicting special suffering. This may be the use of poison or other aggressive substances, the use of fire, causing a large number of injuries, deprivation of water or food, burying the victim alive, torture by electric shock or drowning, and much more.
- Committing a murder in front of the victim's relatives and friends. At the same time, the killer himself must understand that the surrounding witnesses are experiencing serious suffering from the picture unfolding before them.
- The killer prevents the victim from being helped, thereby prolonging her suffering and torment.
In this case, death can often occur from painful shock, which is quite realistic to be recorded by a medical examination.
Various types of mockery of the body of the deceased are not considered cruelty during a murder.
Neither the dismemberment of a corpse in order to cover up traces, nor the rape of the deceased, nor other facts of abuse of him are recognized as cruelty under the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
This is explained by the fact that by the time they are committed, the person is already dead and does not experience any suffering.
But there are exceptions here too . In particular, if the criminal did not precisely understand the moment of his victim’s death, and under the influence of the stream of aggression that gripped him, began to cut off the person’s ears, fingers, or scalp him, this will be recognized as mockery not of the corpse, but of the victim.
Responsibility for murder committed with extreme cruelty
The question of how much they give for murder with particular cruelty is decided exclusively by the court..
To make a decision, the judge must take into account all the evidence in the case so that there is not the slightest doubt that special cruelty was applied to the victim.
Along with the murder of several victims, a minor or helpless person, a pregnant woman and other aggravating circumstances, murder is punished with particular cruelty:
- Imprisonment from 8 to 20 years;
- Life imprisonment;
- The death penalty.
Along with a prison term, the convicted person is subject to a restriction of freedom for a period of up to 2 years for murder with special cruelty.
A moratorium has been imposed on the death penalty in our country. However, this does not mean at all that it cannot be lifted at any time, the execution returned, and all those sentenced to life imprisonment will be shot.
The heat of passion
It is necessary to understand that with a high degree of probability, in order to significantly reduce the severity of responsibility, Ivanov’s lawyer would insist that the crime was committed in a state of passion, since the criminal experienced serious moral trials in the form of his wife’s betrayal. It is this moment, unfortunately, that sometimes “saves” murderers from fair punishment.
But sometimes it helps to avoid maximum punishment for those who really could not be held accountable for their actions.
It’s the same situation from the example, but Alekseev’s wife, before whose eyes a brutal murder was committed, realizing that she would be the next victim, fell into hysterics and somehow freed herself from her bonds. Having picked up the first thing that came to hand (a hammer), she attacked Ivanov and struck him more than 50 blows to the head and chest.
The previously announced difference in the severity of punishment according to Article 107 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation is as follows:
- Murder committed in a state of sudden strong emotional disturbance (affect) caused by violence, mockery or grave insult on the part of the victim or other illegal or immoral actions (inaction) of the victim, as well as a long-term psychologically traumatic situation that arose in connection with systematic illegal or immoral behavior victim, is punishable by correctional labor for a term of up to two years, or restriction of freedom for a term of up to three years, or forced labor for a term of up to three years, or imprisonment for the same term.
- The murder of two or more persons, committed in a state of passion, is punishable by forced labor for up to five years or imprisonment for the same period.
As you can see, the maximum punishment under this article, taking into account the fact that more than 1 person was killed, is only 5 years in prison. Therefore, it is very important to determine the real motive and state of the criminal.
How is the investigation going?
The preliminary investigation of the case must collect the necessary set of evidence so that the judge subsequently has no doubts that the crime is correctly classified under paragraph “e” of Part 2 of Art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
For this purpose, investigators and inquiry officers must collect the following information:
- Goals and motives of the criminal act;
- Instruments used for murder;
- Place where the crime was committed;
- The criminal's sanity;
- The presence or absence of witnesses in the case;
- Attempts to hide evidence and evidence, etc.
To do this, it is necessary to carry out investigative measures:
- Interrogations of the suspect and witnesses;
- Checking readings on site;
- Inspection of the scene of the incident;
- Examination of the body of the corpse and material evidence.
Typically, the nature of the injuries on the victim's body, combined with the defendant's testimony, provide a clear picture of what happened to an experienced investigator. The particular cruelty of the deed is easily detected.
Crime investigation technique
The investigation of such an illegal act begins with establishing the method of committing the actions.
To establish this fact, operational officers begin searching for the crime weapon and assessing the methods of committing the murder. When considering a murder with particular cruelty, determining the method of committing the criminal act is necessary for the correct qualification of this act.
When investigating a crime, the authorized person must answer the following questions:
- Time of death.
- The circumstances of the incident, the methods used by the criminal to hide traces.
- Who could kill a person.
- Confirmation of the fact that the murder occurred with particular cruelty.
- Establishing the identity of the injured person, characterization of the person.
- The motive and purpose of committing an unlawful act.
In general, the investigation of the crime itself is represented by several separate stages:
- Inspection of the crime scene and the body of the victim.
- Forensic examination and examination of physical evidence.
- Interviewing witnesses to the incident and those who found the body.
- Interrogation of suspects.
Judicial practice for 2021
Judicial practice is full of various murders, including those recognized as being committed with particular cruelty.
As a rule, most of these crimes are committed under the influence of alcohol or drugs, or in domestic conflicts.
Since, for example, murder for mercenary reasons is usually carried out with a cold head.
An example of a murder with particular cruelty could be such a real case . Two men living in a communal apartment were drinking in the evening. Their roommate, who had a television, refused to allow them to watch it. After this, the men attacked the neighbor, tied him up, hung him by his feet in the toilet with a rope, and tried to drown him in the toilet. Overall, he suffered numerous injuries. According to the examination, death was caused by a cerebral hemorrhage; the victim was not drowned. Based on the results of the trial, both criminals were sentenced to 15 years in prison each. They were released a year ahead of schedule.
Another case . A man leading an antisocial lifestyle began visiting a compassionate old woman for a meal. For personal reasons, the woman fed the needy in her village. One day the man visited the old woman again, after which the neighbors discovered her body in the morning. The grandmother died of a heart attack from numerous blows, but at the same time she was completely naked and with torn ears. The commission of sexual acts against the grandmother was not proven. The fact that the defendants were beaten was beyond doubt. The convict denied everything, but was still sentenced to 14 years in prison.
Murderers pose an increased danger to society and, by law, must be isolated from it.
A particular danger to others is posed by those who, realizing the cruelty of their actions against an innocent victim, deliberately continued to kill him in brutal and painful ways.
Assassination
Murder with extreme cruelty can be committed with direct or indirect intent. Sometimes an attacker tortures a victim, not trying to kill her, but not worrying about it either. Death in this case becomes not the goal, but the foreseen result of brutal torture.
In an attempt, there can only be direct intent. The criminal was aiming for a brutal murder, but for external reasons he was unable to complete it, and the victim remained alive.
In the case when the victim does not die, they talk about an attempted murder and, in addition to paragraph “d” of the second part of Article 105, they resort to paragraph 3 of Article 30 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - attempt. Read on to find out how much they pay for killing with extreme cruelty.
