Author

Baranova M.A., Grigoryan V.L.

Title of article

Admitting evidence inadmissible in judicial decisions on criminal cases: search of criteria

Section

Section 7. Criminal рrocedural review

Issue, year

1 (35) 2016

Abstract

Criminal procedure law and judicial practice don’t give a clear answer to the question of what violations during investigative actions on a criminal case involve admitting evidence obtained by this way inadmissible. It’s necessary to take into account how significant are the violations, committed during particular investigative action, from the perspective of their inconsistency with the principles of criminal proceedings, the requirements of criminal procedure form set out in the RF Criminal Procedure Code, the rights of the participants in the proceedings and other procedural significant factors. It’s summarized that the significance of the violations of the requirements of law, occurred during specific investigative action, should be the basis for the decision on the inadmissibility of evidence. The degree of significance depends on how they restrict the rights of participants in the proceedings, contradict the requirements of criminal procedure form and other relevant factors, block the possibility of full implementation of the principles of criminal justice. Taking into account the ambiguity of judicial practice, it’s proposed to correct the position of the Plenum of the RF Supreme Court: violations of general rules of investigative actions enshrined in articles 164-170 of the RF Criminal Procedure Code (lack of the official’s signature in the record of investigative action; discrepancy of the scheme and phototable to the record’s text, the copy of the record to its original, etc.) should be indicated as significant violations leading to admitting the evidence inadmissible. The list should be left open for possible changes concerning the general rules for performing investigative actions.

Keywords

criminal proceedings; evidence; inadmissibility of evidence; significant violations of law; judicial and investigative practice; record of investigative action.