When committing various kinds of crimes, the Penal Code provides for different types of punishments in accordance with the public danger of the action itself (inaction), as well as the consequences of this act.
In exceptional cases, milder sanctions may be applied to the guilty person than specified in the code, Art. 64 of the Criminal Code, and this is facilitated by various conditions.
Exclusion of criminal liability
The milder sanctions and conditions that are taken into account in this approach are understood as circumstances mitigating the guilt of the suspect.
Such circumstances include those that relate to the motives, goals and role of the suspect in the crime.
Legislation in Art. 64 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, which refers the reader to other provisions, says that there are acts, the motives of which generally preclude bringing a person to any responsibility whatsoever. The list is specified in Articles 37-42 and includes the following points:
- defense, necessary in some cases, but not to a greater extent than necessary;
- for the use of methods that contributed to causing harm to health or the death of the one from whom the criminal actions were defended or stopped, there is a punishment under article 108;
- actions in emergency situations , if there was a danger to the person who committed the act, but this situation could not be eliminated by other means;
- circumstances when it was necessary to take risks to achieve a socially important goal, and due to this, any norms of criminal law were violated;
- an unlawful act that was committed under duress, physical or mental, as well as on the basis of someone else’s order, if the person is subordinate to a superior person.
Inability to mitigate
In the event that the crime is serious, it is not the first time committed, it has had irreversible consequences, then the mitigation of sanctions using Art. 64 of the Criminal Code is not provided.
Also, it is impossible to apply coercive measures to a person who has committed the actions provided for in the following articles:
- 205-205.5 of the Criminal Code, which contain provisions on terrorism;
- The 206th norm of the code, especially in the 3rd and 4th parts, if any person was taken hostage by an organized group; actions entailed by negligence the death of the victim; a specially organized killing of the victim took place;
- Article 211 of the Code, which provides for the theft of air or rail transport to carry out any terrorist purposes;
- Art. 277-279, which contains sanctions for the encroachment on the life of a civil servant or similar person, for the forcible seizure of power and the organization of a mutiny that must be committed by armed means;
- 360th position, which describes the attack on the organization or persons who are protected by an international nature.
Thus, when committing these crimes, it is impossible to have and take into account special circumstances that could lead to the fact that the offender could avoid criminal liability.
Conditional measures
By mitigation of punishment, referred to in part 1 of Art. 64 of the Criminal Code, can also be attributed conditional: the guilty person does not sit in prison and does not work in compulsory and other work, but engages in the same activities as before the trial, but under close supervision of his behavior by law enforcement agencies.
Thus, the conditions for sentencing are milder than what the criminal article suggests, are contained in total in Art. 64, 73 of the Criminal Code. Despite this, a criminal record under the existing stringent sanctions will exist. The only positive aspects of this approach from the point of view of criminal law literature are the possibility of the perpetrator to think and improve in conditions that do not impose strict restrictions, including imprisonment.
The sentence in view of Article 64 of the Criminal Code
Judicial practice on this issue, that is, on the features of the use of Article 64 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, contains cases in which consideration the positive aspects of the person and her active participation in the investigation, as well as other extenuating circumstances, were clarified.
As an example, we can cite the case pending against the defendant, who stole a tablet computer while being in the organization. Here, the crime was qualified in accordance with paragraph 1 of Article 158 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - theft, that is, the theft of any property by secret means.
During the proceedings in the judicial authorities, it was found that the defendant is positively characterized at work and at the place of residence, is not registered in the neuropsychiatric and narcological dispensaries. In addition, the perpetrator helped to clarify the circumstances that occurred during the theft, fully recognized his guilt and repented.
Final punishment
Thus, despite the fact that the defendant found the court guilty of an offense, given all the positive and extenuating circumstances, the court found it possible to apply Art. 64 of the Criminal Code and Art. 73 of the code.
However, the case contained an aggravating circumstance in the form of an outstanding conviction for a previous crime.
Based on the foregoing, the judge considered it necessary for the defendant to apply measures - 6 months of probation, conditionally, the tablet was taken from the convicted person according to his affiliation (returned to the victim).