Peculiarities of a court decision in criminal proceedings involving persons suffering from mental disorders

Abstract

The article, based on the analysis of the provisions of criminal and criminal procedural law and relevant judicial practice, reveals the peculiarities of the court decision in which compulsory medical measures are applied to persons with limited criminal convictions. Such peculiarities include: the adoption of a court decision regarding defendants with limited convictions in the form of a sentence; the regulatory limitation of the variability of compulsory medical measures only by the provision of outpatient psychiatric care on a compulsory basis; inconsistency in the terms of the prescribed punishment and the use of compulsory medical measures. The latter determines the logic of the question regarding the need for the simultaneous application of two criminal-legal measures of a different nature. It is noted that the procedure for applying compulsory medical measures to persons with a limited criminal record is related to criminal proceedings regarding the application of compulsory medical measures (Chapter 39 of the CPC).In the context of the problems considered, the issue of the possibility of concluding and approving an agreement in criminal proceedings involving persons suffering from mental disorders is investigated. Both court decisions that approved such an agreement and court verdicts that refused to approve the agreement are analyzed from the point of view of argumentation. In terms of three key aspects (the subject of criminal procedural consensus; voluntariness as one of the manifestations of criminal procedural capacity; prospects for fulfilling the terms of the concluded agreement), the position is expressed regarding the expediency of enshrining at the legislative level the impossibility of concluding and approving an agreement with the participation of a suspect, an accused person who has a limited criminal record. It is proposed to extend a similar approach to the victim suffering from mental disorders and to determine that it is impossible to conclude a reconciliation agreement with their participation.