Acquittals in the Practice of Ukrainian Judges

Abstract

The article suggests the results of the study on the experience of Ukrainian judges in passing acquittals. In Ukraine, approximately 0.37 percent of the accused are acquitted. If the general local court passes an acquittal, the chances of such a decision gaining legal force are few, because on average three out of four acquittals are overturned by the appeals court. There is an opinion in the scientific community that judges who previously worked in law enforcement and prosecutors’ offices have an accusatory bias, which is the reason for the small number of acquittals. During the next stage of judicial reform in Ukraine, the legislative body even blocked the access of professionals with work experience in the above-mentioned bodies in order to prevent them from entering the newly created judicial institution – the High Anti-Corruption Court. However, the Ukrainian scientific community has not investigated yet whether such judges really acquit fewer people than their colleagues with other legal experience. Therefore, the work of the Higher Anti-Corruption Court was analyzed, and 262 Ukrainian judges reviewing criminal proceedings were interviewed on the condition of anonymity. The results of the research show that 82 % of judges have no previous experience working on the side of the prosecution. It was also found that most judges, on average, pass 1–5 acquittals during their careers. But a significant group of judges did not acquit people at all. At the same time, most of them are among those who have previous experience working in the bar: as many as 25 percent. However, judges who have previous experience working as investigators – all passed acquittals already during their judicial career. Judges who previously performed the function of criminal prosecution, after changing the type of activity, do not pass a lower number of acquittals than judges who previously performed the function of defense. In addition, there are not many such judges, and therefore, even hypothetically, it is impossible to explain the small number of acquitted persons in the country by their activity. Therefore, the impact of previous experience on the prosecution side is greatly exaggerated. Key words: acquittal, work experience, judge, lawyer, prosecutor, investigator, poll