The jury in Russia

The administration of justice is an incredibly complex thing, contradictory and imposes an unprecedented responsibility on the one who makes it. At all times, the judge was the most respected, honorable and trustworthy person. But, nevertheless, any judge is first of all a person, and a judge with experience is also in some ways a zashoreny person making decisions on a daily basis, and therefore, perhaps, not noticing some little things that will be noticed by a person without experience .

Precisely in order that in each criminal case there were people who had their own, fresh view of the events that had occurred, and a jury trial was introduced in Russia. More precisely, not introduced, but returned, because it first appeared in Russia as early as 1864 and existed until 1922, when it was abolished by the Soviet authorities.

The jury in Russia is a young phenomenon, and it must be said that it is not very popular among people with legal education or the population itself. At the same time, disputes have not ceased over the past several decades, and anyone who has anything to do with the activities of the courts and law enforcement agencies is trying to understand what is more in it - harm or good. It should be noted that they defend the jury trial mainly through very vague arguments, since it is quite difficult to find the real advantages of this option of administering justice.

The jury: for and against

To understand how this type of court is adequate to the current state of affairs in Russia, and whether it has the right to exist (not on the basis of the Constitution, but on the basis of common sense), it is necessary to examine in detail all its essential aspects.

So, the jury is a form of legal proceedings in which the decision on the guilt or innocence of a person accused of a crime is taken by a group of 12 people who do not have special education and are gathered together solely for the sake of passing a verdict in the case.

Experienced lawyers and judges consider such a variant of consideration of criminal cases a priori incorrect, because jurymen do not make decisions on the basis of case materials (although they certainly know them), but on the basis of their own experience. If the judge passes his sentence, relying solely on facts, and focuses on the proof of the crime, then for the jury, the emotional and moral side of the case is often more important. In other words, the jury is judged in terms of morality, and the judge - in terms of law.

But it's not a secret for anyone that in Russia morals and law have always been and still are in the state of some kind of hidden war. It is in this connection that many crimes considered by a jury are considered from the moral aspect. In a number of cases, criminals, even admitting their guilt, were released to jail because of the fact that, from the perspective of a philistine far from the letter of the law, they did not do anything terrible.

The second negative aspect of the jury trial is its potential corruption. People taking part in meetings are often unemployed, pensioners or housewives, that is, the least socially protected stratum of the population. Working citizens prefer not to participate in jury trial - it distracts from the main work, takes time, forces and imposes responsibility, to which they are not ready. Therefore, when the question arises whether it is easy to put pressure on the jury, there is no doubt that a person familiar with Russian realities does not have doubts. In this regard, many professionals believe that the only ones who benefit from the existence of jury trials in Russia are the criminals themselves. Always having the opportunity to pressure either pity or poor jury.