SPECIAL PROCEDURE OF TRIAL IN CASE OF CONSENT OF THE ACCUSED WITH THE CHARGE BROUGHT: THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE AMENDMENT TO THE LAW

The article makes assumptions about the possible consequences of changes made by the Federal Law as of July 20, 2020, No. 224-FZ in edition of the Part 1 of Article 314 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation. According to this amendment, criminal cases on grave crimes will now be considered in the general order, unless a pre-trial cooperation agreement is concluded with the accused. The relevance of this novel is due to the fact that the legislator has once again revised the approach to defining the criteria for simplifying the criminal procedural form. In this regard, practice in the near future may face new or, more precisely, well forgotten old problems related to the period of the beginning of the judicial reform in 1991. A number of issues related to ensuring the right of the accused to a special order of trial will require scientific understanding. The author analyzes foreign legislation, previously and current domestic criminal procedure legislation, opinions on this issue of representatives of the highest levels of the judicial system, prosecutor's office and the legal profession, scientists, statistical data and reviews of the activities of courts of general jurisdiction in criminal cases in 2019. The author comes to the conclusion that in Russia the possibility of applying a simplified procedure associated with the reduction or refusal of the judicial investigation was not directly dependent on the severity of the crime committed, and the reform of the special procedure for judicial proceedings undertaken by the legislator is untimely and is not provided with either personnel or material technical or financial resources. According to the author, the decrease in the number of sentences passed in a special order will occur due to the infringement of the right of those accused of serious crimes to be tried in the procedure provided for in Chapter 40 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation. In this regard, the article outlines the directions for the further development of a special procedure for judicial proceedings, strengthening its consensual nature and ensuring the guarantees of the rights of the accused and victims in this procedure.