17 aggravating circumstances when committing premeditated murder

Murder under aggravating circumstances, committed intentionally, according to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, Part 2 of Art.
105 is subject to criminal liability. The court imposes a punishment on the guilty person for this offense, which, taking into account the qualifications, may consist of imprisonment for both a short period and a longer period. Also in some cases the death penalty or life imprisonment is used. Multi-channel free hotline Legal advice on criminal law. Every day from 9.00 to 21.00

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Aggravating circumstances

The concept of “aggravating circumstances” is used exclusively in criminal proceedings. Murder is considered to be a specific action, which is always committed with purpose and motive, and inaction. The exception is homicide by negligence. The Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (CC RF) specifies the concepts of various types of murder.

Each offense is individual. When assigning punishment for aggravated murder, the picture of the crime is taken into account, which allows a fair punishment to be applied.

Article 63 of the Criminal Code of Russia indicates circumstances that aggravate the punishment of the defendant:

1. Recidivism of offenses, repetition of their commission.
2. A serious consequence as a result of the lawlessness committed.
3. The commission of an offense by a group of citizens who have entered into a conspiracy in advance or by an organized gang.
4. Involvement in the commission of offenses of citizens with severe mental disorders or who are intoxicated, as well as minors who are not subject to criminal liability due to their infancy.
5. Committing an atrocity for political, ideological, racial, national, or religious reasons, because of hatred or enmity.
6. Carrying out a crime out of revenge for the lawful activities of an authorized person.
7. Purposefulness in concealing one offense in order to facilitate another committed crime.
8. Committing a criminal act against a person and his relatives because of his official activities or the performance of a public duty.
9. Carrying out an offense against a pregnant woman, a minor or defenseless citizen, as well as a person who is dependent on the defendant.
10. An offense committed with particular cruelty, sadism, mockery, or torture towards the victim.
11. Committing an offense with the help of weapons, ammunition, explosives, explosive or simulating devices, specially manufactured technical means, toxic and radioactive substances, medicinal, chemical, pharmacological drugs, using physical force or mental influence.
12. Carrying out an atrocity in a state of emergency, natural or social disaster, during mass riots.
13. Committing an offense by taking advantage of the trust placed in the defendant because of his position or under a contract.
14. Carrying out an offense using the form of documents authorized by the authorities.
15. Committing criminal acts by an employee of internal organs.
16. An offense committed in relation to a young child by parents or other persons who are charged by law with the responsibility for his upbringing. This applies to teaching staff or other educational staff, medical professionals, social service organizations or other institutions supervising minors.
17. Carrying out an offense for the purpose of promoting, justifying and supporting terrorism.

Also, taking into account the degree and nature of the social danger of the offense, the circumstances of its implementation, the personal data of the defendant. The court may recognize the aggravating circumstance of its commission if the perpetrator was at that moment intoxicated or using narcotic or psychotropic substances.

Such circumstances can negatively characterize the personality and actions of the perpetrator. And also play a role not in favor of the defendant and influence the imposition of a more severe sentence.

Murder under aggravating circumstances (Part 2 of Article 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation)

Criminal law elements of murder (Part 1 of Article 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

Life as an object of legal encroachment and as a certain physiological. a state has a time frame outlined by its initial and final moments. Their correct definition is important for distinguishing murder from such crimes. types of behavior such as illegal abortion, failure to provide assistance to a person in a life-threatening condition, criminally punishable transplantation of organs and tissues, attempt on an unfit object.

The initial moment of a person's life. is associated with the complete separation of the fetus from the mother’s womb and the first breath of the newborn, and the final one is associated with the complete cessation of the supply of oxygen to the body’s tissues and the subsequent irreversible processes of decay of cells of the central nervous system.

Murder means intentionally causing the death of another person.

The object of the encroachment is the life of another person and the social relations of which he acts as a subject.

The objective side of murder:

1) an act, which can be either in the form of action or inaction, aimed at causing the death of another person;

2) as a result of this act, socially dangerous consequences must occur in the form of the death of another person;

3) there must be a necessary causal connection between the act and the consequences.

Material composition - the murder is considered completed from the moment of the death of the victim. It does not matter when death occurred: immediately or after some time. Actions of a person directly aimed at causing the death of another person, if due to circumstances beyond the control of the perpetrator they did not lead to this result, are qualified as attempted murder.

The subject of the murder is a sane individual who has reached the age of 14 years.

The subjective side of murder is characterized by guilt in the form of direct or indirect intent. Attempted murder is possible only with direct intent.

On the subjective side, murder differs from the intentional infliction of grievous bodily harm resulting in the death of the victim, in that in murder the intent of the perpetrator is aimed at depriving the victim of life, and in the commission of a crime under Part 4 of Art. 111 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the attitude of the perpetrator towards the death of the victim is expressed in negligence.

- simple - murder without qualifying or privileged characteristics (Part 1 of Article 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation);

- from 6 to 15 years with or without restriction of freedom for up to 2 years.

Murder under aggravating circumstances (Part 2 of Article 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

In Part 2 of Art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation formulates the types of qualified murder, or murder with aggravating circumstances.

A) Murder of two or more persons.

In accordance with the provisions of Part 1 of Art. 17 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the murder of two or more persons, committed simultaneously or at different times, does not form a set of crimes and is subject to qualification under paragraph “a” of Part 2 of Art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, and if there are grounds for this, also under other points of part 2 of this article, provided that the perpetrator has not previously been convicted of any of these murders.

The murder of one person and the attempted murder of another cannot be considered a completed crime - the murder of two persons. In such cases, regardless of the sequence of criminal actions, the act should be qualified under Part 1 or Part 2 of Art. 105 and according to Part 3 of Art. 30 and paragraph “a”, part 2, art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The actions of the perpetrator in the murder of two or more persons must be covered by a single intent.

B) The murder of a person or his relatives in connection with the performance of official activities by this person or the performance of a public duty.

This murder is committed with the aim of preventing the person from lawfully carrying out his official activities or fulfilling his public duty, or for reasons of revenge for such activities.

The performance of official activities should be understood as the actions of a person included in the scope of his duties arising from an employment agreement (contract) with state, municipal, private and other duly registered enterprises and organizations, regardless of the form of ownership, with entrepreneurs whose activities do not contradict the current legislation, and under the fulfillment of public duty - the implementation by a citizen of both the duties specifically assigned to him in the interests of society or the legitimate interests of individuals, and the commission of other socially useful actions (suppression of offenses, reporting to authorities about a committed or impending crime or the whereabouts of a wanted person in connection with the commission of offenses, giving evidence by a witness or victim incriminating a person in committing a crime, etc.).

Persons close to the victim, along with close relatives, may include other persons who are related to him or her (relatives of the spouse), as well as persons whose life, health and well-being are known to the perpetrator to be dear to the victim due to established personal relationships.

C) The murder of a minor or another person, known to the perpetrator to be in a helpless state, and also associated with the kidnapping of a person;

The murder of a minor or another person who is known to be in a helpless state by the perpetrator must be qualified as the intentional infliction of death on a victim who is unable, due to a physical or mental state, to defend himself or to provide active resistance to the perpetrator, when the latter, while committing the murder, is aware of this circumstance. Other persons in a helpless state may include, in particular, seriously ill people, the elderly, and persons suffering from mental disorders that deprive them of the ability to correctly perceive what is happening.

When qualifying the actions of the perpetrator under paragraph “c” of Part 2 of Art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation on the basis of “murder associated with kidnapping or hostage-taking”, it should be borne in mind that, within the meaning of the law, liability under this paragraph of Part 2 of Art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation is punishable not only for intentionally causing the death of the kidnapped person or hostage, but also for the murder of other persons committed by the perpetrator in connection with the kidnapping or hostage-taking. The act must be qualified in conjunction with the crimes provided for in Art. 126 or art. 206 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

D) Women who are known to be pregnant by the perpetrator;

D) Murder with extreme cruelty;

When qualifying a murder under paragraph “d” of Part 2 of Art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation must be based on the fact that the concept of special cruelty is associated both with the method of murder and with other circumstances indicating the manifestation of special cruelty by the perpetrator. At the same time, in order to recognize a murder as committed with particular cruelty, it is necessary to establish that the intent of the perpetrator included committing the murder with particular cruelty.

A sign of special cruelty is present, in particular, in cases where, before the deprivation of life or in the process of committing a murder, the victim was subjected to torture, torture or mockery of the victim, or when the murder was committed in a way that the perpetrator knows is associated with causing special suffering to the victim (causing great number of bodily injuries, the use of painful poison, burning alive, prolonged deprivation of food, water, etc.). Particular cruelty can be expressed in committing a murder in the presence of people close to the victim, when the perpetrator was aware that his actions were causing them special suffering.

E) Murder committed in a generally dangerous manner;

A generally dangerous method of murder (clause “e” of Part 2 of Article 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) should be understood as a method of intentionally causing death, which the perpetrator knows to pose a danger to the life of not only the victim, but at least one other person (for example, by means of an explosion , arson, firing shots in crowded places, poisoning water and food that other people besides the victim use).

If, as a result of the generally dangerous method of murder used by the perpetrator, the death of not only a certain person, but also other persons, occurred, the act must be qualified, in addition to paragraph “e” of Part 2 of Art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, under paragraph “a”, part 2 of Art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, and in case of harm to health to other persons - under paragraph “e” of Part 2 of Art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and under articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation providing for liability for intentional infliction of harm to health.

E.1) Based on blood feud;

G) Committed by a group of persons, a group of persons by prior conspiracy or an organized group;

Murder is recognized as committed by a group of persons when two or more persons, acting together with intent aimed at committing murder, directly participated in the process of taking the life of the victim, using violence against him, and it is not necessary that the injuries leading to death were caused by each of them ( for example, one suppressed the victim’s resistance, deprived him of the opportunity to defend himself, and the other inflicted fatal injuries on him). Murder should be recognized as committed by a group of persons even in the case when, in the process of one person committing actions aimed at intentionally causing death, another person (other persons) joined him for the same purpose.

A preliminary conspiracy to murder presupposes an agreement expressed in any form between two or more persons, which took place before the commencement of actions directly aimed at taking the life of the victim. At the same time, along with co-perpetrators of the crime, other members of the criminal group may act as organizers, instigators or accomplices of murder, and their actions should be qualified under the relevant part of Art. 33 and paragraph “g”, part 2, art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

An organized group is a group of two or more individuals united by the intent to commit one or more murders. As a rule, such a group carefully plans a crime, prepares murder weapons in advance, and distributes roles between group members. Therefore, when a murder is recognized as committed by an organized group, the actions of all participants, regardless of their role in the crime, should be qualified as co-perpetrator without reference to Art. 33 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

H) Murder for mercenary motives or for hire, as well as associated with robbery, extortion or banditry;

According to paragraph “h” of Part 2 of Art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (murder for mercenary motives) should qualify a murder committed with the aim of obtaining material benefits for the perpetrator or other persons (money, property or rights to receive it, rights to living space, etc.) or getting rid of material costs (refund property, debt, payment for services, fulfillment of property obligations, payment of alimony, etc.).

A murder caused by the receipt by the perpetrator of the crime of material or other reward should be classified as murder for hire. Persons who organized a murder for reward, instigated its commission or assisted in the commission of such a murder are liable under the relevant part of Art. 33 and paragraph “h”, part 2, art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

Murder in the process of committing these crimes should be classified as involving robbery, extortion or banditry. What was done in such cases is qualified under paragraph “h” of Part 2 of Art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation in conjunction with articles of the Criminal Code providing for liability for robbery, extortion or banditry.

I) Murder for hooligan reasons;

According to paragraph “and” part 2 of Art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation should qualify murder committed on the basis of obvious disrespect for society and generally accepted moral norms, when the behavior of the perpetrator is an open challenge to public order and is caused by the desire to oppose himself to others, to demonstrate a disdainful attitude towards them (for example, deliberately causing death for no apparent reason or with using a minor reason as a pretext for murder).

If the culprit, in addition to murder for hooligan motives, committed other deliberate actions that grossly violated public order, expressed clear disrespect for society and were accompanied by the use of violence against citizens or the threat of its use, as well as the destruction or damage of other people’s property, then what he did should be qualified according to the law. "and" part 2 art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and the corresponding part of Art. 213 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

To correctly distinguish between murder for hooligan reasons and murder in a quarrel or fight, it is necessary to find out who initiated it, and whether the conflict was provoked by the perpetrator to use it as a pretext for murder. If the instigator of a quarrel or fight was the victim, as well as in the case where the conflict was caused by his illegal behavior, the perpetrator cannot be held responsible for murder for hooligan motives.

K) In order to hide another crime or facilitate its commission, as well as involving rape or sexual assault;

Within the meaning of the law, qualification under paragraph “k” of Part 2 of Art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the murder of a certain person committed by the perpetrator in order to conceal another crime or facilitate its commission excludes the possibility of qualifying the same murder, in addition to the specified paragraph, under any other paragraph of Part 2 of Art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, which provides for a different purpose or motive for murder. Therefore, if it is established that the murder of the victim was committed, for example, for mercenary or hooligan motives, it cannot simultaneously be qualified under paragraph “k” of Part 2 of Art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

Murder involving rape or violent acts of a sexual nature should be understood as murder in the process of committing these crimes or for the purpose of concealing them, as well as committed, for example, out of revenge for resistance provided during the commission of these crimes.

Considering that in this case two independent crimes are committed, the crime should be qualified under paragraph “k” of Part 2 of Art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and, depending on the specific circumstances of the case, under the relevant parts of Art. 131 or Art. 132 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

K) For reasons of political, ideological, racial, national or religious hatred or enmity, or for reasons of hatred or enmity towards any social group;

M) For the purpose of using the victim’s organs and tissues;

The object of the encroachment is the life of another person and the social relations of which he acts as a subject.

The objective side of murder:

1) an act, which can be either in the form of action or inaction, aimed at causing the death of another person;

2) as a result of this act, socially dangerous consequences must occur in the form of the death of another person;

3) there must be a necessary causal connection between the act and the consequences.

Material composition - the murder is considered completed from the moment of the death of the victim. It does not matter when death occurred: immediately or after some time. Actions of a person directly aimed at causing the death of another person, if due to circumstances beyond the control of the perpetrator they did not lead to this result, are qualified as attempted murder.

The subject of the murder is a sane individual who has reached the age of 14 years.

The subjective side of murder is characterized by guilt in the form of direct or indirect intent. Attempted murder is possible only with direct intent.

Murder under mitigating circumstances (Article 106-108 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

Criminal law elements of murder (Part 1 of Article 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

Life as an object of legal encroachment and as a certain physiological. a state has a time frame outlined by its initial and final moments. Their correct definition is important for distinguishing murder from such crimes. types of behavior such as illegal abortion, failure to provide assistance to a person in a life-threatening condition, criminally punishable transplantation of organs and tissues, attempt on an unfit object.

The initial moment of a person's life. is associated with the complete separation of the fetus from the mother’s womb and the first breath of the newborn, and the final one is associated with the complete cessation of the supply of oxygen to the body’s tissues and the subsequent irreversible processes of decay of cells of the central nervous system.

Murder means intentionally causing the death of another person.

The object of the encroachment is the life of another person and the social relations of which he acts as a subject.

The objective side of murder:

1) an act, which can be either in the form of action or inaction, aimed at causing the death of another person;

2) as a result of this act, socially dangerous consequences must occur in the form of the death of another person;

3) there must be a necessary causal connection between the act and the consequences.

Material composition - the murder is considered completed from the moment of the death of the victim. It does not matter when death occurred: immediately or after some time. Actions of a person directly aimed at causing the death of another person, if due to circumstances beyond the control of the perpetrator they did not lead to this result, are qualified as attempted murder.

The subject of the murder is a sane individual who has reached the age of 14 years.

The subjective side of murder is characterized by guilt in the form of direct or indirect intent. Attempted murder is possible only with direct intent.

On the subjective side, murder differs from the intentional infliction of grievous bodily harm resulting in the death of the victim, in that in murder the intent of the perpetrator is aimed at depriving the victim of life, and in the commission of a crime under Part 4 of Art. 111 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the attitude of the perpetrator towards the death of the victim is expressed in negligence.

- simple - murder without qualifying or privileged characteristics (Part 1 of Article 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation);

- from 6 to 15 years with or without restriction of freedom for up to 2 years.

Murder under aggravating circumstances (Part 2 of Article 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

In Part 2 of Art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation formulates the types of qualified murder, or murder with aggravating circumstances.

A) Murder of two or more persons.

In accordance with the provisions of Part 1 of Art. 17 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the murder of two or more persons, committed simultaneously or at different times, does not form a set of crimes and is subject to qualification under paragraph “a” of Part 2 of Art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, and if there are grounds for this, also under other points of part 2 of this article, provided that the perpetrator has not previously been convicted of any of these murders.

The murder of one person and the attempted murder of another cannot be considered a completed crime - the murder of two persons. In such cases, regardless of the sequence of criminal actions, the act should be qualified under Part 1 or Part 2 of Art. 105 and according to Part 3 of Art. 30 and paragraph “a”, part 2, art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The actions of the perpetrator in the murder of two or more persons must be covered by a single intent.

B) The murder of a person or his relatives in connection with the performance of official activities by this person or the performance of a public duty.

This murder is committed with the aim of preventing the person from lawfully carrying out his official activities or fulfilling his public duty, or for reasons of revenge for such activities.

The performance of official activities should be understood as the actions of a person included in the scope of his duties arising from an employment agreement (contract) with state, municipal, private and other duly registered enterprises and organizations, regardless of the form of ownership, with entrepreneurs whose activities do not contradict the current legislation, and under the fulfillment of public duty - the implementation by a citizen of both the duties specifically assigned to him in the interests of society or the legitimate interests of individuals, and the commission of other socially useful actions (suppression of offenses, reporting to authorities about a committed or impending crime or the whereabouts of a wanted person in connection with the commission of offenses, giving evidence by a witness or victim incriminating a person in committing a crime, etc.).

Persons close to the victim, along with close relatives, may include other persons who are related to him or her (relatives of the spouse), as well as persons whose life, health and well-being are known to the perpetrator to be dear to the victim due to established personal relationships.

C) The murder of a minor or another person, known to the perpetrator to be in a helpless state, and also associated with the kidnapping of a person;

The murder of a minor or another person who is known to be in a helpless state by the perpetrator must be qualified as the intentional infliction of death on a victim who is unable, due to a physical or mental state, to defend himself or to provide active resistance to the perpetrator, when the latter, while committing the murder, is aware of this circumstance. Other persons in a helpless state may include, in particular, seriously ill people, the elderly, and persons suffering from mental disorders that deprive them of the ability to correctly perceive what is happening.

When qualifying the actions of the perpetrator under paragraph “c” of Part 2 of Art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation on the basis of “murder associated with kidnapping or hostage-taking”, it should be borne in mind that, within the meaning of the law, liability under this paragraph of Part 2 of Art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation is punishable not only for intentionally causing the death of the kidnapped person or hostage, but also for the murder of other persons committed by the perpetrator in connection with the kidnapping or hostage-taking. The act must be qualified in conjunction with the crimes provided for in Art. 126 or art. 206 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

D) Women who are known to be pregnant by the perpetrator;

D) Murder with extreme cruelty;

When qualifying a murder under paragraph “d” of Part 2 of Art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation must be based on the fact that the concept of special cruelty is associated both with the method of murder and with other circumstances indicating the manifestation of special cruelty by the perpetrator. At the same time, in order to recognize a murder as committed with particular cruelty, it is necessary to establish that the intent of the perpetrator included committing the murder with particular cruelty.

A sign of special cruelty is present, in particular, in cases where, before the deprivation of life or in the process of committing a murder, the victim was subjected to torture, torture or mockery of the victim, or when the murder was committed in a way that the perpetrator knows is associated with causing special suffering to the victim (causing great number of bodily injuries, the use of painful poison, burning alive, prolonged deprivation of food, water, etc.). Particular cruelty can be expressed in committing a murder in the presence of people close to the victim, when the perpetrator was aware that his actions were causing them special suffering.

E) Murder committed in a generally dangerous manner;

A generally dangerous method of murder (clause “e” of Part 2 of Article 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) should be understood as a method of intentionally causing death, which the perpetrator knows to pose a danger to the life of not only the victim, but at least one other person (for example, by means of an explosion , arson, firing shots in crowded places, poisoning water and food that other people besides the victim use).

If, as a result of the generally dangerous method of murder used by the perpetrator, the death of not only a certain person, but also other persons, occurred, the act must be qualified, in addition to paragraph “e” of Part 2 of Art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, under paragraph “a”, part 2 of Art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, and in case of harm to health to other persons - under paragraph “e” of Part 2 of Art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and under articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation providing for liability for intentional infliction of harm to health.

E.1) Based on blood feud;

G) Committed by a group of persons, a group of persons by prior conspiracy or an organized group;

Murder is recognized as committed by a group of persons when two or more persons, acting together with intent aimed at committing murder, directly participated in the process of taking the life of the victim, using violence against him, and it is not necessary that the injuries leading to death were caused by each of them ( for example, one suppressed the victim’s resistance, deprived him of the opportunity to defend himself, and the other inflicted fatal injuries on him). Murder should be recognized as committed by a group of persons even in the case when, in the process of one person committing actions aimed at intentionally causing death, another person (other persons) joined him for the same purpose.

A preliminary conspiracy to murder presupposes an agreement expressed in any form between two or more persons, which took place before the commencement of actions directly aimed at taking the life of the victim. At the same time, along with co-perpetrators of the crime, other members of the criminal group may act as organizers, instigators or accomplices of murder, and their actions should be qualified under the relevant part of Art. 33 and paragraph “g”, part 2, art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

An organized group is a group of two or more individuals united by the intent to commit one or more murders. As a rule, such a group carefully plans a crime, prepares murder weapons in advance, and distributes roles between group members. Therefore, when a murder is recognized as committed by an organized group, the actions of all participants, regardless of their role in the crime, should be qualified as co-perpetrator without reference to Art. 33 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

H) Murder for mercenary motives or for hire, as well as associated with robbery, extortion or banditry;

According to paragraph “h” of Part 2 of Art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (murder for mercenary motives) should qualify a murder committed with the aim of obtaining material benefits for the perpetrator or other persons (money, property or rights to receive it, rights to living space, etc.) or getting rid of material costs (refund property, debt, payment for services, fulfillment of property obligations, payment of alimony, etc.).

A murder caused by the receipt by the perpetrator of the crime of material or other reward should be classified as murder for hire. Persons who organized a murder for reward, instigated its commission or assisted in the commission of such a murder are liable under the relevant part of Art. 33 and paragraph “h”, part 2, art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

Murder in the process of committing these crimes should be classified as involving robbery, extortion or banditry. What was done in such cases is qualified under paragraph “h” of Part 2 of Art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation in conjunction with articles of the Criminal Code providing for liability for robbery, extortion or banditry.

I) Murder for hooligan reasons;

According to paragraph “and” part 2 of Art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation should qualify murder committed on the basis of obvious disrespect for society and generally accepted moral norms, when the behavior of the perpetrator is an open challenge to public order and is caused by the desire to oppose himself to others, to demonstrate a disdainful attitude towards them (for example, deliberately causing death for no apparent reason or with using a minor reason as a pretext for murder).

If the culprit, in addition to murder for hooligan motives, committed other deliberate actions that grossly violated public order, expressed clear disrespect for society and were accompanied by the use of violence against citizens or the threat of its use, as well as the destruction or damage of other people’s property, then what he did should be qualified according to the law. "and" part 2 art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and the corresponding part of Art. 213 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

To correctly distinguish between murder for hooligan reasons and murder in a quarrel or fight, it is necessary to find out who initiated it, and whether the conflict was provoked by the perpetrator to use it as a pretext for murder. If the instigator of a quarrel or fight was the victim, as well as in the case where the conflict was caused by his illegal behavior, the perpetrator cannot be held responsible for murder for hooligan motives.

K) In order to hide another crime or facilitate its commission, as well as involving rape or sexual assault;

Within the meaning of the law, qualification under paragraph “k” of Part 2 of Art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the murder of a certain person committed by the perpetrator in order to conceal another crime or facilitate its commission excludes the possibility of qualifying the same murder, in addition to the specified paragraph, under any other paragraph of Part 2 of Art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, which provides for a different purpose or motive for murder. Therefore, if it is established that the murder of the victim was committed, for example, for mercenary or hooligan motives, it cannot simultaneously be qualified under paragraph “k” of Part 2 of Art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

Murder involving rape or violent acts of a sexual nature should be understood as murder in the process of committing these crimes or for the purpose of concealing them, as well as committed, for example, out of revenge for resistance provided during the commission of these crimes.

Considering that in this case two independent crimes are committed, the crime should be qualified under paragraph “k” of Part 2 of Art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and, depending on the specific circumstances of the case, under the relevant parts of Art. 131 or Art. 132 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

K) For reasons of political, ideological, racial, national or religious hatred or enmity, or for reasons of hatred or enmity towards any social group;

M) For the purpose of using the victim’s organs and tissues;

The object of the encroachment is the life of another person and the social relations of which he acts as a subject.

The objective side of murder:

1) an act, which can be either in the form of action or inaction, aimed at causing the death of another person;

2) as a result of this act, socially dangerous consequences must occur in the form of the death of another person;

3) there must be a necessary causal connection between the act and the consequences.

Material composition - the murder is considered completed from the moment of the death of the victim. It does not matter when death occurred: immediately or after some time. Actions of a person directly aimed at causing the death of another person, if due to circumstances beyond the control of the perpetrator they did not lead to this result, are qualified as attempted murder.

The subject of the murder is a sane individual who has reached the age of 14 years.

The subjective side of murder is characterized by guilt in the form of direct or indirect intent. Attempted murder is possible only with direct intent.

Murder under mitigating circumstances (Article 106-108 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

Characteristics of the crime

Premeditated murder under aggravating circumstances is considered a more dangerous crime. No one has the right to take a person’s life for personal reasons.

An offense may be committed:

• with direct;
• with indirect intent.

If the perpetrator consciously commits an act that can cause harm to another person, this characterizes direct intent.

The manifestation of indirect intent is that the perpetrator did not initially plan the murder, but did not exclude its possibility and deliberately allowed it.

There are often cases when such actions are committed during fights and quarrels that arose due to national, racial, religious prejudices or blood feud or jealousy. Basically, they are classified as murders with hooligan motives, as they are always accompanied by gross violations of public order.

It would also be wrong to separately characterize the circumstance related to the subjective side and to the subject of the murder.

The nature of the circumstances of the subjective side is:

1. The motivation of the perpetrator.
2. Purposefulness of committing murder.
3. The perpetrator was in a state of passion at the time of the murder.

For example, the selfish motivation for committing a murder equally relates to the nature of the subjective side and the subject.

The objective side of the offense is characterized by:

• acts that infringe on any object in the form of action or inaction;
• socially dangerous consequence;
• cause-and-effect relationship of action, inaction, consequences;
• method, location, time, setting, means and weapons with which the crime was committed.

On the objective side, the composition of murder always has a material bias. Other characteristics of this crime are taken into account during the qualification process, subject to their inclusion in the disposition of the relevant norms.

In the current Criminal Code, circumstances aggravating the offense are combined into two groups.

The first provides for paragraphs “a”, “c”, “d”, “d”, “m”, “f”, part 2 of Art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, qualifying the objective side of the circumstances that aggravate the offense.

The second group contains points “b”, “g”, “h”, “i”, “j”, “l”, part 2 of Art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, defining the distinctive features of the subjective side that aggravate the circumstances of the murder.

A general description of the circumstances that aggravate the crime is provided by the classification of murder. These circumstances are closely intertwined with the offense.

The Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation has a tough position and believes that the use of indirect intent in qualifying an attempted murder is impossible.

PANFYOROV Dmitry Nikolaevich senior lecturer of the department of special training of the Ufa Law Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, police lieutenant colonel PUGACHEV Alexey Viktorovich senior lecturer of the department of special training of the Ufa Institute of Law

Modern criminal policy regarding aggravated murder has been influenced by a number of factors. Firstly, in recent years, murder committed under aggravating circumstances has become highly latent - violent attacks of this type are committed at least 2-3 times more than are registered. Secondly, there are difficulties in qualifying these acts in the presence of contradictory judicial practice and ambiguity in theoretical approaches to the issue of criminal legal assessment of the actions of the guilty person.

In order to solve these and a number of other problems, the legislator has repeatedly made changes to the text of the criminal law in order to clarify and systematize the relevant norms, and the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation has given appropriate clarifications on the issues under consideration.

At the same time, it seems that the current state of affairs regarding the issues of qualification and construction of some qualifying features of murder is not indisputable and requires some revision.

1. Murder of two or more persons. This act is provided for in paragraph “a” of Part 2 of Art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. For a long time, the criminal law doctrine proceeded from the fact that this type of qualified murder existed as an alternative to repeated cases of deprivation of life, and provided for the unity of intent of the perpetrator to deprive the lives of several persons. The actions of the perpetrator were considered as a single ongoing crime.

Taking into account changes in criminal legislation related to the revision of the provisions of the institution of multiple crimes, repetition was excluded from the text of the criminal law, and the totality of crimes was expanded.

In connection with the above, the law enforcement officer responded to this problem in relation to the murder of two or more persons, but not immediately.

Only by Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of April 3, 2008 No. 4, a change was made to the previous edition of paragraph 5 of Resolution No. 1 of January 27, 1999 “On judicial practice in murder cases (Article 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).”

Currently, paragraph 5 of this Resolution is as follows: “In accordance with the provisions of Part 1 of Art. 17 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the murder of two or more persons, committed simultaneously or at different times, does not form a set of crimes and is subject to qualification under paragraph “a” of Part 2 of Art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, and if there are grounds for this, also under other points of part 2 of this article, provided that the perpetrator has not previously been convicted of any of these murders.”

On the one hand, it is difficult to disagree with this position, since, as V.N. Titov, the key when assessing the behavior of a serial killer should not be intent, but the life of a particular person.

Based on the provisions provided for in Part 1 of Art. 17 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation that there is no totality of crimes if the commission of two or more crimes is provided for by articles

According to the special part of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, as a circumstance entailing a more severe punishment, the actions of the perpetrator who took the lives of several people should be considered as a qualified type of murder - the murder of two or more persons, provided for in paragraph “a” of Part 2 of Art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

On the other hand, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation rightly considered that the provisions of Part 1 of Art. 17 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation in relation to a crime (in this case, murder) of several persons must be clearly regarded as a qualified sign of murder, but the question arises: will this not lead to the “depersonalization” of all those cases of deprivation of life that took place in the behavior of the guilty person?

Each crime, including murder, must have its own independent legal assessment. In essence, the law enforcement officer with the wording “the murder of two or more persons, committed simultaneously or at different times, does not form a set of crimes” indicates that we are talking, as previously said, about the so-called continuing crime. Theoretical provisions in this regard nullify the desire of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation to strengthen criminal liability for such behavior of the guilty person, since each of the murders committed by the guilty person must, according to the logic of the law enforcement officer, be part of a “chain of murders”.

The existence of an existing problem is also indicated by the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation itself, which made changes to paragraph. 2, paragraph 5 of Resolution No. 1 of January 27, 1999, provided the following: “The murder of one person and the attempted murder of another cannot be considered as a completed crime - the murder of two persons. In such cases, regardless of the sequence of criminal actions, the act should be qualified under Part 1 or Part 2 of Art. 105 and according to Part 3 of Art. 30 and paragraph “a”, part 2, art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation."

Thus, there is an obvious contradiction in the text of the Resolution. On the one hand, it is indicated that the murder of two or more persons is a single ongoing crime, on the other hand, if it is associated with at least one case of unfinished murder, then we are talking about both aggregation and an unfinished single crime.

It seems that this theoretical and applied problem should find its unambiguous solution. Either the law enforcement officer must recognize the murder of one person and the attempted murder of another as an unfinished ongoing crime - an attempted murder of two persons; or reject the fact that the murder of two or more persons excludes the totality of crimes and recognize the need to impute the perpetrator in all such cases (completed murders) - independently of each individual episode in the aggregate, as well as clause “a” of Part 2 of Art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

It seems that the first position seems more fair, since it allows for a systematic interpretation of the provisions of Part 1 of Art. 17 and art. 30 and paragraph “a”, part 2, art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. In the second case, there is a so-called double imputation, which, as is known, has no place in the criminal law, based on the principle of justice (Part 2 of Article 6 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

At the same time, this does not generally solve the problem of the existing interpretation by the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of the provisions of Part 1 of Art. 17 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, since in this form the rule of independent assessment of each criminal act is violated, which is unacceptable, both from a legal and procedural point of view. Consequently, the legislator should reconsider the exceptions contained in the text of Part 1 of Art. 17 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation in relation to a set of crimes.

1. Murder of a minor (clause “c” of Part 2 of Article 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

For a long time, the young age of the victim was not considered as an independent qualifying sign of murder. Until recently, it was actually an integral part of the “helpless state” symptom.

In paragraph 7 of the Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court No. 1 of January 27, 1999 “On judicial practice in murder cases (Article 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation)” it is stated that “under paragraph “c” of Part 2 of Art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (murder of a person known to the perpetrator to be in a helpless state) should qualify the intentional infliction of death on a victim who is unable, due to a physical or mental state, to defend himself or to provide active resistance to the perpetrator, when the latter, while committing the murder, is aware of this circumstance. Persons in a helpless state may include, in particular, seriously ill and elderly people, young children, people suffering from mental disorders that deprive them of the ability to correctly perceive what is happening.”

Changes introduced on July 27, 2009 by Federal Law No. 215-FZ identified the murder of a minor as an independent qualifying feature provided for in paragraph “c” of Part 2 of Art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, along with a helpless state. Moreover, the legislator, in relation to minors, did not include in the text of the law an indication of the sign of “knowledge”. This approach indicates that in order to impute this characteristic, it is necessary that the murder victim is under 14 years of age. It does not matter whether the guilty person was aware of this fact or not.

This provision indicates the desire of the legislator, on the one hand, to provide additional protection for the interests of minors; on the other hand, to strengthen criminal liability for attacks on the lives of these persons.

From a legal position, we are talking about the so-called objective imputation in relation to the murderer, since, regardless of his awareness of the signs of the victim characterizing his age, he is charged with a qualifying circumstance of murder. Despite the fact that objective imputation is unacceptable (Part 2 of Article 5 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), one should agree with A.I. Martsev is that it, as an exception to the rules, has the right to exist, while the legislator should strive to limit the possibilities of its application.

By making such changes, the legislator “stimulates” the objective imputation of signs of crimes characterized by an increased degree of public danger.

At the same time, changes related to the exclusion of the indication of the sign of “knowledge” in relation to the age of the victim were introduced by the above-mentioned Federal Law of July 27, 2009 No. 215-FZ and in Art. 131 and 132 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

Giving appropriate explanations in this regard, the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation in Resolution No. 16 of December 4, 2014 “On judicial practice in cases of crimes against sexual integrity and sexual freedom of the individual” noted that when applying the law on criminal liability for committing crimes provided for Art. Art. 131 and 132 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, in relation to minors, courts should proceed from the fact that the qualification of crimes on the relevant grounds “is possible only in cases where the perpetrator knew or admitted that the victim was a person under eighteen years of age or another age, specifically specified in the disposition of the article of the Special Part of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.”

As noted by V.B. Poezzhalov and A.E. Linkevich, the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation in this resolution actually says that the changes made regarding the exclusion of the sign of “knowledge” from the text of the criminal law should not be taken into account, but should be guided by the content of the intent of the perpetrator.

Consequently, it should be concluded that the desire of the legislator to “strengthen responsibility” for the murder of a minor using “objective imputation” is not realized in reality (cannot be realized), since the Plenum, using a restrictive interpretation of the law, narrows the scope of the legal norm. At the same time, it seems advisable that the corresponding explanations be given in the Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation No. 1 of January 27, 1999 “On judicial practice in murder cases (Article 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation)” in order to uniform judicial practice and prevent discrepancies in decision-making in similar cases.

1. Murder associated with the commission of a particular crime.

There are a lot of these types of qualified murder. The legislator does not highlight them in one paragraph of Part 2 of Art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Murder associated with kidnapping is provided for in paragraph “c”, murder associated with robbery, extortion or banditry is indicated in paragraph “h”, and murder associated with rape or violent acts of a sexual nature is provided for in paragraph “k” h .2 tbsp. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

As G.N. Borzenkov notes, the issue of constructing and qualifying murders associated with the commission of the above crimes has always been controversial. At the same time, the presence of such structures, despite all their complexity, was justified by time. Courts at various levels have developed a fairly large volume of judicial practice, which is systematized by the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation. Criminal acts of the perpetrator in all cases under consideration in accordance with paragraphs. 7, 11, 13 Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of January 27, 1999 No. 1 “On judicial practice in murder cases” should be qualified according to the totality of the corresponding paragraph of Part 2 of Art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“c”, “z” or “k”) and articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation providing for liability for kidnapping (Article 125 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), robbery (Article 162 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), extortion (Article 163 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) ), banditry (Article 131 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), rape (Article 131 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) or violent acts of a sexual nature (Article 132 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

The peculiarity of this kind of qualification is based on the priority of human life over other goods and on the fact that, on the one hand, no act can cover the murder of another person, on the other hand, murder cannot cover attacks on other objects of criminal legal protection. In this case, the feature “conjugation” should be assessed as “existing alongside”, “existing independently”.

Federal Law No. 321-FZ of December 30, 2008

Part 3 Art. 205 “Terrorist act”, Part 4 of Art. 206 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “Hostage-taking” and Part 3 of Art. 281 “Sabotage”, especially aggravating circumstances were established, increasing the punishment for the relevant acts if they “resulted in the intentional causing of death to a person.”

These provisions have changed the approach to the construction and qualification of murder and related crimes that has existed for many years. In fact, the legislator reconsidered the place of the rule on murder in the system of criminal law regulations. In this regard, the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation in paragraph 9 of Resolution No. 1 of February 9, 2012 “On some issues of judicial practice in criminal cases of crimes of a terrorist nature” indicated that “in the event that a terrorist act entailed the intentional death of a person (or two or more persons), the act is covered by paragraph “b” of Part 3 of Art. 205 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and additional qualifications under Art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation is not required.”

The construction of “involvement,” in relation to murder, seems to be more preferable compared to the formulation “resulted in the intentional causing of death to a person.”

Firstly, one act cannot entail another act. There are no such legislative structures in any other criminal law norm (except for Part 3 of Article 205, Part 4 of Article 206 and Part 3 of Article 281 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). An act may cause consequences, and according to the logic of the legislator, a terrorist act, hostage-taking or sabotage may lead to murder, that is, another act. In this regard, the legislative structure in which, say, the taking of a hostage entails the “deliberate infliction of death on a person” looks quite controversial. It is more fair to say that the hostage-taking involved murder.

Secondly, if the legislator chose a “different” approach in comparison with the already established approach to formulating the rules for assessing murder in the commission of other criminal acts, then why did this only apply to hostage-taking, a terrorist act and sabotage? It seems that it would be necessary to provide an indication of these acts as involving murder in Part 2 of Art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

Thirdly, the exclusion of additional qualifications under Art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation in the case of committing a terrorist act, hostage-taking or sabotage, if the court does not impose a sentence of life imprisonment, excludes the totality of crimes, and, therefore, the imposed punishment may be lower than in the case of the perpetrator committing acts “involving murder”, which not entirely fair from the point of view of individualization of punishment.

In connection with the above, it seems appropriate to unify and systematize criminal law regulations regarding cases when, in the process of committing criminal acts, the perpetrator commits murder. For these purposes, it is necessary to provide an indication of the connection between murder and elements of a terrorist act, hostage-taking and sabotage, by providing an indication in one of the paragraphs of Part 2 of Art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

Responsibility for murder

A crime directed against human life is called murder.
This is reflected in the legislation. It specifies the penalties applicable to citizens who commit this offense. There are different life situations when a person does not have time to control his emotions that influenced the commission of a crime. Article 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation consists of two parts. The first talks about committing a murder without aggravating circumstances. The culprit convicted under this part is sentenced to imprisonment for 6–15 years.

The second part of the article indicates the circumstances under which more severe punishments are applied. The perpetrator is brought to justice for murder under certain circumstances that make his guilt even more serious.

The defendant may be punished:

1. Imprisonment for 8–20 years.
2. Life imprisonment.
3. Imposing the death penalty.

The law sees an increased social threat in murders committed under circumstances that aggravate the guilt; because of this, long sentences are applied to the perpetrators in such cases.

But there are situations when murder is committed through negligence. This applies to Article 109 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation; this offense is classified separately from Art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

In this case, it is necessary to conduct an accurate study of causing death to a person. Was it really random? Could the defendant have foreseen the fatal outcome? Did he take any measures to avoid tragedy?

In case of deprivation of life through negligence, the criminal may foresee a negative consequence. But due to criminal frivolity, he does not attach any importance to this or, due to criminal negligence, he does not think about the consequences.

This article provides for penalties:

• if an action or inaction leads to the death of two or more people, 4 years of imprisonment are imposed;
• when the culprit does not fulfill his official duties, a punishment of up to 3 years follows;
• in addition, under Article 109 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, restriction of freedom or forced labor for a period of 2 years may be imposed.

Therefore, it is important to correctly classify crimes related to murder during the preliminary investigation.

What is the penalty for murder?

The Russian Criminal Code contains 4 articles on murder, providing for different elements of the crime, and one article on causing death by negligence. The most severe punishment is provided for under Art. 105 about premeditated murder.

The article is divided into 2 parts. The first part deals with a simple crime. The second part is devoted to qualified murder, that is, the deliberate deprivation of the life of another person in the presence of various aggravating circumstances.

Aggravating circumstances in murder and criminal liability for a qualified crime

Note!

The list of human conditions in which he can be considered helpless, given by the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, is not exhaustive, which allows this qualification to be interpreted very broadly. In particular, there are several court decisions according to which the murdered person, who was in a state of intoxication, was either recognized as helpless or not.

Part 2 art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation contains a list of 13 circumstances that aggravate the guilt of the killer and increase the criminal punishment for him. Qualifying signs of murder include:

• Murder of several persons. We are talking about the simultaneous or short-term murder of two or more people, provided that they took place within the framework of one crime. The murder of several people, spaced out over time and not connected by a common criminal plan, is considered as multiple murders.
• The murder of officials or public figures, as well as their relatives, associated with the exercise of their functions. In this case, we are talking not only about murder in the process of performing these functions, but also for reasons of revenge for their implementation.
• The murder of persons in a state of helplessness, in particular young children, as well as murder associated with kidnapping.
• Murder of pregnant women. The particular danger of such a crime is explained by the fact that at the same time as the mother, her fetus also dies.
• Particular cruelty shown when committing a murder. Particular cruelty refers to both the painful method of murder for the victim and the personal character traits of the perpetrator. The investigation will have to prove that the accused was aware that he was inflicting special torture and specifically used it in the process of committing the crime.
• A generally dangerous method of committing a crime. This means that the offender, intending to kill a specific person, used a method that could have harmed other persons, and deliberately neglected this danger. For example, he mined the victim’s table in a crowded cafe.
• Murder committed as part of a group. This qualification unites all groups, including organized and by prior conspiracy.
• The mercenary nature of the crime committed. We are talking about the fact that as a result of the murder the criminal received or planned to receive material benefits. This feature is supplemented by committing a crime on order, as well as combining it with banditry, robbery and extortion.
• Hooligan motive for committing a crime. Characterized by an open and obvious disregard for morality and disrespect for society. The killer in this case challenges society and opposes himself to it. Therefore, the punishment for such an act is very severe.
• Murder in order to facilitate the commission of another crime (for example, the murder of a security guard during a robbery of a warehouse) or to conceal another crime (the murder of a witness, a victim of violence).
• The motive of hatred towards social groups associated with ideological, political, racial and other characteristics. Confrontation along these lines destroys society and can lead to the destruction of the state. Therefore, such a motive increases responsibility for committing murder.
• Blood feud motive.
• The motive for using the victim's organs or tissues. The development of organ and tissue transplantation has given rise to a criminal business of removing them, which the state is fighting by tightening penalties.

Note!

The modern Criminal Code of the Russian Federation interprets rape exclusively as violent acts associated with the penetration of the male rapist’s penis into the victim’s woman’s vagina. Any other violent actions related to the satisfaction of sexual passion are prosecuted under another article of the Criminal Code, although liability under these articles is the same.

For committing premeditated murder in the presence of qualifying criteria, the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation establishes the following liability:

• imprisonment for a term of 8 to 20 years;
• life imprisonment;
• the death penalty.

Note!

The death penalty is not currently applied. But this option of liability is not excluded from the Criminal Code. Times may change, and technically it will be extremely easy to reinstate the death penalty.

Liability for premeditated murder without aggravating circumstances

If the qualifying signs of murder listed above are absent, and the crime is not aggravated by anything, liability arises under Part 1 of Art. 105. Responsibility for it is significantly softer. The minimum term of imprisonment is 6 years, the maximum is 15.