Classification of evidence in criminal proceedings. The concept of evidence in criminal proceedings

The concept and classification of judicial evidence requires a preliminary consideration of the question of what the criminal process in the Russian Federation is and what function it performs. Opinions of authors-lawyers in this regard are ambiguous and versatile.

The concept of criminal proceedings

In the most general sense, the criminal process is designed to solve the problems of imposing a fair punishment for those who have committed a crime, and of rehabilitating innocent citizens. The method of their solution is the procedural form (or a set of actions and procedures provided for by the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation).

In a narrower sense, the criminal process is the active actions of the bodies of inquiry, investigators, prosecutors and the courts, providing for the initiation, investigation and resolution of criminal cases.

The objectives of the criminal process

• Protection of legitimate interests, rights and freedoms of organizations and citizens.
• Fast, prompt and complete disclosure of crimes committed or those that are in the process of preparation.
• Identification and punishment of perpetrators, as well as the rehabilitation of innocent citizens.
• The correct application and interpretation of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, the norms of international law and the principles generally recognized in the process of criminal proceedings.

The classification of evidence in criminal proceedings is essential. But initially it is necessary to determine the very concept and its role in legal proceedings.

Place of evidence in the criminal process of the Russian Federation

Part 1 of Article 6 of the Code of Criminal Procedure stipulates that the purpose of criminal proceedings is primarily to protect the interests and legal rights of organizations and citizens who have been harmed as a result of a crime. Secondly, it is the protection of individuals from unlawful and unfounded charges, as well as the imposition of punishment by the court and the restriction of rights and freedoms.

The implementation of this appointment in the framework of criminal proceedings is carried out by the inquiry officer, investigator, prosecution authorities and the courts. One of the main components of this activity is the process of proof. It is important that any phenomenon, action or fact leaves behind itself traces in the real material world or mental images in the human mind. The concept of evidence in criminal proceedings takes these facts as a basis. The traces will be a reflection of the committed criminal offense, on their basis the bodies of inquiry and investigation restore the picture of what happened, establish the circumstances, the person who committed the crime, his motives. Thus, evidence in a criminal proceeding is any genuine, real-life data that has been received and verified in the manner prescribed by law, by which the issue of corpus delicti, innocence or guilt of a person is resolved, and other circumstances relevant to the criminal case being investigated .

Evidence properties

The concept of evidence in criminal proceedings is closely related to their properties. One of the main ones is relevance, that is, the ability to affirm or refute any factual circumstances that are important for the criminal case under investigation. The second property is validity. It lies in the ability of the information received to be used in court proceedings as evidence. It must be obtained as a result of the activities of authorized persons: the investigator and the inquirer, the court. Evidence must be obtained from one of the sources that are prescribed in the law:

• testimony of the suspect and the accused;
• protocols of investigative and judicial actions;
• testimony of the victim, witnesses;
• evidence;
• testimony and professional expert opinion ;
• testimony and expert opinion;
• other documents.

The method of collecting evidence must comply with the procedure established by law. They must also be fixed in the form provided for by the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation. For example, if these are the testimonies of the participants in the proceedings (the victim, witness, accused, suspect), then they should be issued in the form of an interrogation protocol.

Two other important properties are reliability and adequacy. The first is understood as the correspondence of evidence to the circumstances of the event. Any official may acknowledge this. But on behalf of the state, only a court can recognize evidence as reliable. Sufficiency is understood as a property that consists in the ability of the given evidence to establish all circumstances without exception that are subject to proof. Based on the properties, nature and other factors, the classification of evidence in criminal proceedings is based.

Invalid evidence

The concept of inadmissibility of evidence is applied if all of the above requirements are not met. The law clearly defines the list of information that is unacceptable to use in criminal proceedings. The following apply to them:

• testimonies of the accused or suspect obtained during pre-trial proceedings without the presence of a defense counsel or if they refused him, but at the court hearing this fact was not confirmed;
• evidence obtained during the interrogation of a witness or victim, based on rumors or assumptions, as well as information received from a witness whose source he refuses to disclose;
• other evidence obtained by methods contrary to the Code of Criminal Procedure.

Classification of evidence in the criminal process of the Russian Federation

It implies separation, distribution into various classes. The same evidence can be assigned to different groups. The reason for this is that the grounds for the classification of evidence can be different: the source of receipt, relevance to the subject of evidence, etc. In this connection, the following groups can be noted:

1. Initial and derivative - depending on the nature and nature of the source of evidence in the criminal process. The first includes the testimony of eyewitnesses, an instrument for committing a crime, the originals of various documents. Thus, this is evidence obtained from the original sources. Otherwise, the information contained in the source that received the required facts from another source is called derivatives. For example: various recorded traces left at the scene, or testimonies of witnesses that became known to them from the words of an eyewitness, copies of documents.
2. The classification of judicial evidence, depending on their ability to confirm or refute the issue of whether a certain person is guilty of a criminal offense. The first group is the accusers, they indicate the existence of a crime, expose the accused, and also aggravate the punishment if the court finds him guilty. The second category is acquittal; on the contrary, they indicate the absence of corpus delicti and justify the person or mitigate the punishment assigned to him. An elementary example is such a concept as an alibi, familiar to everyone. This is also justifying evidence, which means the impossibility of a person being at the crime scene at the time of its commission.
3. Classification and types of evidence depending on their relationship with the subject of proof. They can be direct and indirect. The main task of persons investigating a crime is to collect direct evidence that indicates the circumstances of the case without intermediaries. For example, the testimony of an eyewitness (witness) that the accused stabbed the victim, or the testimony of the victim himself. Indirect evidence indicates the circumstances of the investigated case indirectly, through intermediate facts. For example: fingerprints of a person who has a criminal record (extinguished or not) on a bottle or glass found at the scene of an incident. The presence of only indirect evidence for indictment is not enough, it is necessary to establish a completely justified causal relationship between him and the events that have occurred in order to exclude an accidental coincidence.
4. Personal and material. This classification of judicial evidence is based on the difference in the nature of the information carrier. Real ones are, of course, objects from the material world around which traces of interaction with a person or other objects related to the event under investigation are displayed. Personal evidence is one that is based on a person’s mental perception and awareness of what is happening. These primarily include testimonies of participants in the criminal process, including an expert and a specialist, as well as their conclusion and other documents.

Evidence

These are objects of the material world, individual qualities, the states of which are directly related to the event. The objects themselves are a means of proof, and evidence is their properties and attributes. For example, a sleeve from a certain type of firearm. Classification of evidence is carried out according to the same principles as the general. The Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation, article 81, part 1, provides a list of cases in which any tangible objects can acquire the status of material evidence.

Written evidence as a kind of material

Their material basis is made up of objects of the objective world, most often it is wood, metal, paper, which retain the applied written signs. The most common and complete is the following classification of written evidence:

• depending on the subject of origin: official and private;
• by the nature of the content: reference and information (reports, protocols, letters, etc.) and administrative documents (for example, transactions executed in writing);
• in form: simple, obligatory form and content (for example, birth certificate), notarized contracts (with or without registration with management bodies).

Testimony of the suspect

The classification of evidence in criminal proceedings classifies them as personal. This is information that is obtained during the preliminary investigation, as a result of interrogation, drawn up in the manner prescribed by law and which constitute grounds for initiating criminal proceedings against the interrogated person, as well as for the application of detention or other preventive measure. Interrogation is carried out no later than one day from the moment of detention and in strict accordance with the requirements of the criminal legislation of the Russian Federation. The testimony of the accused differs in that they receive information on the merits of the charge already brought.

Testimony of the victim, witness

Interrogation is similar, but there are some differences. Giving evidence to the victim is both a duty and his legal right. Interrogation may also be carried out on his initiative. But you need to evaluate the information received objectively, as this is an interested person. The witness may not testify against close relatives, himself, his spouse. This is the right of every citizen of the Russian Federation, enshrined in the Constitution. In other cases, he is responsible for false testimony or even refusal of them.

Expert and specialist testimony

The interrogation is carried out after the conclusion on the issue under investigation is received, in order to clarify it or to clarify it in detail. The testimony of a specialist is used when the circumstances of the investigated case require the involvement of a person with special knowledge in any area of ​​professional activity.

Thus, we can conclude that the classification and types of evidence in the criminal process are diverse and divided according to various signs and grounds.