THE MODEL OF PROCEEDINGS IN CRIMINAL CASES AGAINST A DECEASED

The relevance of the topic of this study is caused by the imperfection of the legislative regulation of the proceedings in a criminal case within the conditions of the death of a suspect or a defendant. The recognition of the provisions of paragraph 4 of part 4 of article 24 of the RF Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation and part 1 of article 254 of the RF Code of Criminal Procedure by the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation to be non-compliant with the RF Constitution necessitated the amending of criminal procedure legislation. However, up to now, such changes have not been made, and the arrangements for criminal proceedings in a case against a deceased taking into account the possibility of participation of relatives of a deceased have not been settled. The study of criminal cases terminated on the basis of paragraph 4 of part 1 of article 24 of the RF Criminal Procedure Code showed that in the extraordinary majority of cases the investigation or consideration of cases on the merits was terminated after establishing the fact of the death of a suspect (accused) without establishing and examination of evidence of guilt of a deceased. The persons who might have been interested in continuing the proceedings in a criminal case have not been involved in it for many years, their attitude regarding the possibility of termination of a criminal case has not been clarified, they have not been informed about the decision. The foregoing made it possible to judge the need to form a model of criminal proceedings for a deceased. The paper has developed the key provisions of such a proceeding, the distinctive feature of which is the absence of a subject to be held criminally liable. Moreover, the authors substantiated the proposals on the procedure and forms of participation of close relatives of a deceased person or other interested parties in a criminal case, paid attention to the obligatoriness of participation of a defense attorney, and developed other proposals aimed at the formation of a model of special proceedings regarding the deceased.