New edition of Art. 307 Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation
The descriptive and motivational part of the guilty verdict must contain:
1) a description of the criminal act recognized by the court as proven, indicating the place, time, method of its commission, form of guilt, motives, goals and consequences of the crime;
2) the evidence on which the court’s conclusions regarding the defendant are based, and the reasons for which the court rejected other evidence;
3) an indication of the circumstances mitigating and aggravating the punishment, and if the charge is found to be unfounded in any part or the crime is incorrectly classified - the grounds and motives for changing the charge;
4) the reasons for resolving all issues related to the imposition of a criminal sentence, release from it or its serving, and the use of other measures of influence;
4.1) evidence on which the court’s conclusions are based that the property subject to confiscation was obtained as a result of the commission of a crime or is the proceeds of this property or was used or intended to be used as a weapon, equipment or other means of committing a crime or for the financing of terrorism, extremist activity (extremism), organized group, illegal armed group, criminal community (criminal organization);
5) justification for decisions made on other issues specified in Article 299 of this Code.
Another comment on Art. 307 Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation
1. This part of the conviction provides a description of the criminal act, if it was found proven by the court, the circumstances of its commission (place, time, method, etc.), as well as the form of guilt of the defendant, the goals, motives and consequences of the crime. It also provides the evidence on the basis of which the court found the defendant guilty of committing a crime, as well as the reasons why the court did not consider it possible to accept other evidence.
2. This Code requires, in addition, the motivation of decisions on issues related to the imposition of punishment, the release of a convicted person from serving a sentence, the conviction of a defendant without imposing a sentence, and the application of confiscation of property. The court must also indicate the circumstances that it considered mitigating and aggravating the punishment.
Article 307 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation. Descriptive and motivational part of the guilty verdict (current version)
1. The descriptive and motivational part of the verdict, in turn, consists of establishing, evidentiary, motivational parts, as well as the motivation for the unproven part of the accusation.
The installation part may contain:
1) a brief introductory statement of the characteristics of the crimes of which the defendant is found guilty by the court, for example, consisting in the fact that the court “established: N committed extortion, i.e. demand for the transfer of someone else’s property, by prior agreement with a group of persons, using violence, in order to obtain property on a large scale”;
2) a description of the criminal act recognized by the court as proven, indicating the place, time, method of its commission, form of guilt, motives, goals and consequences of the crime. At the same time, such formulations as, for example, “at an unspecified time, in an unspecified place, from a source not established by the investigation, G., in a preliminary conspiracy with B., illegally acquired 0.166 g of heroin ...” are unacceptable. The motives, goals and consequences of the crime (or their absence) must be indicated, even when they are not covered by the qualifications of the crime. If the state prosecutor in the trial changed the charge in the direction of mitigation (Part 8 of Article 246), then the court, regardless of what opinion it has in relation to the charge, describes the criminal act in accordance with the charge changed by the prosecutor;
3) the attitude of the defendant to the charge brought against him, both in full and in the part in which the court finds him guilty, expressed in full or partial recognition or non-recognition of his guilt. In a partial confession, the court indicates which specific acts the defendant pleads guilty to and which he does not, and also gives the arguments that the defendant puts forward in his defense. If the defendant refused to testify against himself, then it is indicated that he refused to testify at the trial.
The evidentiary part reveals the content of all, without exception, evidence examined by the court during the trial - both confirming the guilt of the defendant and aimed towards acquittal.
In the reasoning part of the verdict, it is necessary to provide a comprehensive analysis (evaluation) of the evidence on which the court based its conclusions, and all evidence, both incriminating and exonerating the defendant, must be assessed. The court is obliged to explain why it accepts some of the evidence examined in the case and rejects others. In cases where there are several expert opinions in the case containing different conclusions on the same issues, the court should evaluate each of them in the verdict in conjunction with other evidence in the case and give the reasons why it agreed with one of the conclusions and rejected others. The descriptive part of the verdict must also evaluate the arguments presented by the defendant in his defense. If the defendant changes the testimony given by him during the inquiry or preliminary investigation, the court is obliged to carefully check both of his testimony, find out the reasons for the change in the testimony and evaluate it in conjunction with other evidence collected in the case.
The verdict must motivate the court's conclusions regarding the classification of the crime under a particular article of the criminal law, its part or paragraph. Finding the defendant guilty of committing a crime on grounds related to assessment categories (grave or especially grave consequences, large or significant damage, significant harm, responsible official position of the defendant and others), the court should not limit itself to a reference to the relevant feature, but must provide a descriptive part of the sentence, the circumstances that served as the basis for the conclusion about the presence of the specified sign in the crime.
If the defendant has committed one crime that is erroneously classified by several articles of the criminal law, the court must indicate the exclusion of the article of the criminal law erroneously imputed to the defendant only in the descriptive part of the sentence, giving the appropriate reasons.
When the defendant is charged under several articles of the criminal law and the court during the trial comes to the conclusion that it is necessary for some of them on grounds established by law to terminate the case (Article 254), a reasoned decision on this is set out not in the verdict, but in the ruling (resolution ) of the court, passed simultaneously with the sentence. In this case, in the descriptive part of the sentence it is necessary to indicate that the case accusing the defendant of committing other crimes was terminated by a separate determination (resolution).
Any change in the charge in court must be motivated in the narrative part of the sentence. The court has the right to change the charge and qualify the defendant’s action under another article of the criminal law, as well as qualify individual episodes of a crime under an article of law under which the defendant was not charged, only if the defendant’s actions, classified under the new article of the law, were imputed to him and were not excluded by the judge from the indictment (act) when scheduling a court hearing, do not contain signs of a more serious crime and do not differ significantly in factual circumstances from the charge for which the case was accepted for trial, and the change in charge does not worsen the situation of the defendant and does not violate his rights to protection.
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See: clause 8 of the Resolution of the RF Supreme Court of April 29, 1996 No. 1 “On the court verdict” // RG. 05/22/1996. N 95.
2. Courts are obliged to comply with the requirements of Part 4 of Art. 307 on the need to motivate conclusions in the verdict on issues related to the assignment of the type and amount of punishment to the defendant. In this case, motives should be understood as specific factual circumstances of the case, established in court proceedings through evidence, indicating an increased social danger of the defendant, the stability of his antisocial psychological attitude, and not just abstract reasoning that “correction of the defendant is impossible without isolating him from society.” .
Comment source:
Ed. A.V. Smirnova “COMMENTARY ON THE CRIMINAL PROCEDURE CODE OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION” (ARTICLE BY ARTICLE), 5th edition
SMIRNOV A.V., KALINOVSKY K.B., 2009
Commentary on Article 307 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation
1. The descriptive and motivational part of the verdict, in turn, consists of establishing, evidentiary, motivational parts, as well as the motivation for the unproven part of the accusation.
The installation part may contain:
1) a brief introductory statement of the characteristics of the crimes of which the defendant is found guilty by the court, for example, consisting in the fact that the court “established: N committed extortion, i.e. demand for the transfer of someone else’s property, by prior agreement with a group of persons, using violence, in order to obtain property on a large scale”;
2) a description of the criminal act recognized by the court as proven, indicating the place, time, method of its commission, form of guilt, motives, goals and consequences of the crime. At the same time, such formulations as, for example, “at an unspecified time, in an unspecified place, from a source not established by the investigation, G., in a preliminary conspiracy with B., illegally acquired 0.166 g of heroin,” are unacceptable.” The motives, goals and consequences of the crime (or their absence) must be indicated, even when they are not covered by the qualifications of the crime. If the state prosecutor in the trial changed the charge in the direction of mitigation (Part 8 of Article 246), then the court, regardless of what opinion it has in relation to the charge, describes the criminal act in accordance with the charge changed by the prosecutor;
3) the attitude of the defendant to the charge brought against him, both in full and in the part in which the court finds him guilty, expressed in full or partial recognition or non-recognition of his guilt. In a partial confession, the court indicates which specific acts the defendant pleads guilty to and which he does not, and also gives the arguments that the defendant puts forward in his defense. If the defendant refused to testify against himself, then it is indicated that he refused to testify at the trial.
The evidentiary part reveals the content of all, without exception, evidence examined by the court during the trial - both confirming the guilt of the defendant and aimed towards acquittal.
In the reasoning part of the verdict, it is necessary to provide a comprehensive analysis (evaluation) of the evidence on which the court based its conclusions, and all evidence, both incriminating and exonerating the defendant, must be assessed. The court is obliged to explain why it accepts some of the evidence examined in the case and rejects others. If there are several expert opinions in the case containing different conclusions on the same issues, the court should evaluate each of them in the verdict in conjunction with other evidence in the case and give the reasons why it agreed with one of the conclusions and rejected other. The descriptive part of the verdict must also evaluate the arguments presented by the defendant in his defense. If the defendant changes the testimony given by him during the inquiry or preliminary investigation, the court is obliged to carefully check both of his testimony, find out the reasons for the change in the testimony and evaluate it in conjunction with other evidence collected in the case.
The verdict must motivate the court's conclusions regarding the classification of the crime under a particular article of the criminal law, its part or paragraph. Finding the defendant guilty of committing a crime on grounds related to assessment categories (grave or especially grave consequences, large or significant damage, significant harm, responsible official position of the defendant and others), the court should not limit itself to a reference to the relevant feature, but must provide a descriptive part of the sentence, the circumstances that served as the basis for the conclusion about the presence of the specified sign in the crime.
If the defendant has committed one crime that is erroneously classified by several articles of the criminal law, the court must indicate the exclusion of the article of the criminal law erroneously imputed to the defendant only in the descriptive part of the sentence, giving the appropriate reasons.
When the defendant is charged under several articles of the criminal law and the court during the trial comes to the conclusion that it is necessary for some of them on grounds established by law to terminate the case (Article 254), a reasoned decision on this is set out not in the verdict, but in the ruling (resolution ) of the court, passed simultaneously with the sentence. In this case, in the descriptive part of the sentence it is necessary to indicate that the case accusing the defendant of committing other crimes was terminated by a separate determination (resolution).
Any change in the charge in court must be motivated in the narrative part of the sentence. The court has the right to change the charge and qualify the defendant’s action under another article of the criminal law, as well as qualify individual episodes of a crime under an article of law under which the defendant was not charged, only if the actions of the defendant, classified under the new article of the law, were imputed to him and were not excluded by the judge from the indictment (act) when scheduling a court hearing, do not contain signs of a more serious crime and do not differ significantly in factual circumstances from the charge for which the case was accepted for trial, and the change in charge does not worsen the situation of the defendant and does not violate his rights to protection <1>.
——————————— <1> See: paragraph 9 of the Resolution of the RF PVS dated 04/29/1996 N 1 “On the judicial verdict” // RG. 05/22/1996. N 95.
2. Courts are obliged to comply with the requirements of Part 4 of Art. 307 on the need to motivate conclusions in the verdict on issues related to the assignment of the type and amount of punishment to the defendant. In this case, “motives” should be understood as specific factual circumstances of the case, established in court proceedings through evidence, indicating an increased social danger of the defendant, the stability of his antisocial psychological attitude, and not just abstract reasoning that “correction of the defendant is impossible without isolating him from society."
