Judicial Control over Compliance with Plea Agreement at Special Stages of Criminal Procedure

Abstract

The paper discusses the extension of judicial control at the special stages of a criminal procedure in case the defendant violates the plea agreement being a cassation and supervisory basis for the cancellation of the verdict that has entered into legal force. The author reveals obvious conceptual and legal-technical contradictions of the mentioned ground for the current procedural forms of criminal cassation and supervision and the resulting inability of the relevant verification stages to implement the problematic ground. In addition to the instrumental errors of the considered grounds for reversing the judgment that has entered into force, attention is drawn to its contradictions with the European standards of res judicata and non bis in idem in the sense given by the law enforcement practice of the European Court of Human Rights. The author proposes options for resolving the identified problems, filling the uncertainty of legal regulation by referring to the institutions of criminal and criminal procedural law. In order to achieve the aims related to the control over conscientious fulfillment of the terms of a plea agreement set by the legislator, it is proposed to consider the violation of such an agreement by the defender as a newly discovered circumstance. This option will optimize the procedural order of proceedings on court decisions that have entered into legal force, keep it away from technical and conceptual contradictions, and ensure the proper fulfillment of its international legal obligations by the Russian Federation.