E.P. Ishenko. Death Penalty: Past, Present, Future

Abstract: The article notes that the thought-out system of criminal and legal sanctions is an important tool of crime control. Such modern purposes of applying this system which concern the general and the private prevention are considered in this article, the brief retrospective of application of death penalty since 1397 when it was fixed in the Dvina Judgement Certificate and its subsequent legislative regulation in the Pskov Judgement Certificate of 1467, the Code of Laws of 1467, the Code of Laws of 1550, the Council Code 1649, the Military Field Code of 1812, the Criminal Code of 1903, the Soviet period legislation and up to the present day, which allowed stage by stage to track the tendency to reduction of its application in our country and abroad, as well as criminal consequences of waiving it as a higher measurement of punishment, is made. Further the author analyzes the position which developed in the Russian Federation after introduction of the moratorium on capital punishment, compares main arguments of opponents (abolitionists) and supporters of capital punishment (conservatives), concerning its sociopolitical, moral, religious, historical and cultural, ethic, legal aspects, in particular such as contradiction of capital punishment to the ideas of civilization and progress, Christian dogma, its low preventive value, danger of making a fatal mistake at condemnation of an innocent person, etc. The author directs attention to negative consequences of an effect of the moratorium on capital punishment in the Russian Federation, its replacements with life imprisonment and referring to positive experience of such countries as the USA, Japan, China, Saudi Arabia, which apply it for fulfillment of the most grave crimes against a person, the author makes a conclusion that the moratorium on capital punishment in our country mismatches the imaginations of the majority of the Russian citizens concerning justice and humanity, they consider it as a connivance of the most notorious offender, the indifference to victims of their evil deeds that is why taking into account difficult conditions of the Russian society’s life now it should be cancelled as fast as possible since the death penalty is still necessary.

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