The nullification of the Russian jury: Lessons for jury-inspired reform in eurasia and beyond

Cornell International Law Journal

Volumn 40, Issue 2, 2007, Pages 355-428

  Thaman, Stephen C ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 36749054676     PISSN: 00108812     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Review

References (22)

1. See generally Stephen C. Thaman, The Resurrection of Trial by Jury in Russia, 31 STAN. J. INT'L L. 61 (1995) (chronicling Russia's transition toward jury trials in the early 1990's).
2. O Kontseptsii Sudebnoy Reformy, VEDOMOSTI RSFSR, Issue No. 44, Item No. 1435 (1991)
3. reprinted in KONTSEPTSIIA SUDEBNOY REFORMY V ROSSIYSKOY FEDERATSII (1992) [hereinafter Concept of Judicial Reform].
4. Id. at 40-41, 80, 85.
5. A study in 1986 reported that each year approximately 2,500 citizens were illegally arrested and more than 3,000 wrongfully prosecuted. Todd Foglesong, Habeas Corpus or Who Has the Body? Judicial Review of Arrest and Pretrial Detention in Russia, 14 WIS. INT'L L. J. 541, 547 (1996).
6. Central to these revelations was the fact that many innocent people had been convicted. Emblematic of this situation was the conviction and sentencing to death of twelve innocent persons in Vitebsk for the crimes of Mikhasevich, a maniac who killed 33 women. At least one of the innocent was executed. V.V. MEL'NIK, ISKUSSTVO ZASHCHITY V SUDE PRISIAZHNYKH 25-26 (2003).
7. See Thaman, supra note 1, at 67. These "people's assessors" have also been called "pawns in the hands of the judge" and "wordless judges." V.V. MEL'NIK, ISKUSSTVO DOKAZAZYVANIIA W SOSTIAZATEL'NOM UGOLOVNOM PROTSESSE 19 (2000).
8. In a 1988 survey of 120 judges, 60 reported that within the past year they had been approached by a party or government official with a suggestion as to how to decide a particular case. GORDON B. SMITH, REFORMING THE RUSSIAN LEGAL SYSTEM 68 (1996). Another study estimated that party officials intervened in 10 to 12 percent of all cases. Id.
9. See Thaman, supra note 1, at 66-68.
10. ROBERT CONQUEST, THE GREAT TERROR: A REASSESSMENT 121-24 (1990).
11. I.L. PETRUKHIN, TEORETICHESKIE OSNOVY REFORMY UGOLOVNOGO PROTSESSA V ROSSII PART II 122 (2005).
12. For more on how this "file prejudice" poisoned the Soviet-Russian trial, see L. M. KARNOZOVA, VOZROZHDENNYY SUD PRISIAZHNYKH 155 (2000). For more on how it is the most important reason for the judge's prosecutorial bias
13. see MEL'NIK, supra note 5, at 35.
14. Peter H. Solomon, Jr., The Case of the Vanishing Acquittal: Informal Norms and the Practice of Soviet Criminal Justice, 39 SOVIET STUDIES 531, 547 (1987).
15. The 1993 Jury Law amended the 1960 Soviet era Code of Criminal Procedure. UGOLOVNO-PROTSESSUAL'NYY KODEKS RSFSR S PRILOZHENIAMI (N.P. Kipnis ed., 2d. ed. 2001) [hereinafter UPK-RSFSR].
16. Article 47 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation (adopted on December 12, 1993), guarantees right to trial by jury and Art. 20 the right to a jury trial in cases where capital punishment is threatened. Konstitutsiia Rossiyskoy Federatsii, KONSTITUTSII STRAN SNG (1999), at 262-296 [hereinafter Const. RF] (translated by the author). In 1996 Russia declared a moratorium on the imposition of capital punishment, but the penalty is still included in the Russian Penal Code.
17. See Stephen C. Thaman, Comparative Criminal Law and Enforcement: Russia, in ENCYCLOPEDIA OF CRIME & JUSTICE 207, 215 (Joshua Dressler ed., 2d. ed. 2001). Art. 123(4) provides for adversary procedure; art. 49(1) guarantees the presumption of innocence; and finally, art. 50(2) requires exclusion of illegally gathered evidence. Const. RF, supra note 13. The aforementioned rights had actually already been included by amendment in the Soviet-era Constitution by 1992.
18. See Thaman, supra note 1, at 77.
19. UGOLOVNO-PROTSESSUAL'NYY KODEKS ROSSIYSKOY FEDERATSII (2005) [hereinafter UPK-RF] (adopted by the State Duma on November 22, 2001, approved by the Federation Council on December 5, 2001, and signed by the President of the Russian Federation on December 18, 2001).
20. The right to jury trial is guaranteed in the following post-Soviet constitutions: The Constitution of the Republic of Armenia, art. 91(2), KONSTITUTSII STRAN SNG (1999), at 66;
21. The Constitution of Kazakhstan, art. 75(2), KONSTITUTSII STRAN SNG (1999), at 184;
22. The Constitution of Ukraine, arts. 124(4), 127(1), 129(2), KONSTITUTSII STRAN SNG (1999), at 399-400);