Translated material
The State Duma adopted a law to reduce the number of jurors
On June 7, the State Duma adopted in the third reading a bill to reduce the number of jurors in regional courts from 12 to eight people.
Reducing the number of jurors in regional courts will simplify the procedure for their selection, as well as reduce trial time and costs, the explanatory note says .
The lower chamber also approved the introduction of six-member juries in district and garrison military courts. Their competence will include a number of especially serious crimes for which a person cannot be sentenced to life or sentenced to death, as well as the articles “Murder” and “Intentional infliction of grievous bodily harm, negligently resulting in the death of the victim,” TASS . reports
The introduction of the jury, according to the explanatory note, should strengthen the status of district courts as "the main link in the Russian judicial system, closest to the population", and create conditions for "wide involvement of citizens in the administration of justice."
After the entry into force of the law, more than 15,000 defendants will be granted the right to petition for a trial by jury.
- A package of bills on changing the number of juries in regional courts and introducing a jury in district courts was submitted to the State Duma by Russian President Vladimir Putin. In December 2015, he proposed to reduce the number of jurors to 5-7 people. The Supreme Court also spoke in favor of the introduction of reduced collegiums in district courts .
- the reduction in the number of jurors Human rights activists opposed . Tamara Morshchakova, a former judge of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, said that reducing the board to seven people "will destroy the very essence of the jury."
- Jury trials have been held in modern Russia since 1993. Collegiums operate in regional courts and hear cases in which defendants face the death penalty or life imprisonment.