Moratorium on the death penalty in Russia. When in Russia the death penalty was abolished

The abolition of the death penalty in the Russian Federation occurred very recently - at the very end of the 20th century. Because of this, a lot of noise is spread around this penalty, society worries that the moratorium will be lifted and "the heads will fly." But is it really so?

What is a moratorium on the death penalty?

In fact, this phrase means that at the moment the government of the Russian Federation has completely abandoned this kind of punishment and the severity of the committed crime will not at all change the state of things. Instead of the death penalty, the Criminal Code prescribes life imprisonment in custody or for a period determined by the court, depending on the deed committed.

But the moratorium on the death penalty in Russia is still considered a temporary phenomenon, since in the legal language this term refers to refraining from performing any actions until the relevant conditions prescribed in the treaty are met.

The death penalty

Earlier this type of punishment was practiced with an enviable frequency and was the only possible measure envisaged by the Criminal Code for certain categories of crimes. The death penalty was mainly punishable by murder or attempted assault on officials and prominent figures.

Such punishment was provided only for men from 18 to 65 years, women were also given similar sentences, but history knows only three cases of its execution. Before the moratorium on the death penalty was imposed in Russia, it was carried out by the only legal means - through execution.

For the benefit of justice

The motive for the abolition of executions in many countries of the world is the likelihood of a judicial error at the cost of the life of an innocent person. In part, such a step looks like a lack of confidence in the competence of the relevant authorities, but some states (for example, Japan) compensate this gap in justice otherwise - instead of canceling this type of punishment they increase the term of detention of the sentenced person to find out additional circumstances.

So why in Russia a moratorium on the death penalty was still installed? The fact is that this step required membership in the Council of Europe, which Russia joined in 1997 - there was simply no other way out.

Subtleties of the contract

The main unrest around the moratorium was raised because of the conditions of application to the European Convention on Human Rights. It says that the death penalty will only be replaced for a while by life imprisonment - exactly as long as the jury trial is not established in each constituent entity of the Federation . But almost seven years ago this point was finally observed in all regions of the country, because of which the society touched upon such topic as the lifting of the moratorium on the death penalty in Russia.

This issue was actually submitted for consideration, but after studying all the circumstances of the current situation, the court decided to leave it as it is. For this reason, the most severe punishment applied to particularly cruel criminals was life imprisonment. However, this term is not entirely accurate. Most of the population believes that it implies detention before death, but this is not the case. In fact, the term of life imprisonment is 25 years - it is believed that in Russian prisons with their conditions of detention it is impossible to hold out so much time. Moreover, in the absence of censure regarding the discipline, the prisoner may be released after 16 years of serving his sentence.

Anxiety around the theme of the death penalty also creates the fact that in the Criminal Code such a penalty still appears in the corresponding list - that is, its complete cancellation is still not the case, and at any time the state of affairs is able to change.

Can a moratorium on the death penalty be lifted in Russia?

More than half of the country's residents really support this decision, but this development is possible only in one case - if the Russian Federation withdraws from the Council of Europe. Perhaps this is the worst of the possible options, since then any international obligations, including those that were prescribed by the Convention on Human Rights, will completely fall from Russia.

It is not known what will become of the country's legislation in this case, since it is now tightly bound by the signed agreements with Europe. For the development of Russia, it is very important to preserve this aspect, regardless of the opinion of the population itself, since it is precisely against this that the Russian Federation will escape from PACE. The abolition of the penalty is only one of the obligations imposed on the country in the process of its entry into the organization, but in the meantime there are hundreds of them.

With regard to such a delicate topic as the lifting of the moratorium on the death penalty in Russia, this action is impossible as long as it is part of the Council of Europe. So far, there has been no talk that the Russian Federation is going to leave the organization.