Russia's New Jury System

"Our people are not ready for jury trials."

-- Aleksandr Dmitrievich Chernov, chairman of the Krasnodar Regional Court, 1999.

Over 10 years ago, Russia underwent a revolutionary change in their judicial system - the introduction to trial by jury. In the 1993 Russian Constitution (Article 20), "a defendant has the right to trial by jury in cases provided for by the federal law." Although the jury trials were only restricted to nine regions, this practice quickly expanded to include 83 regions under the 2001 Criminal Procedure Code (adopted on November 22, 2001 and become effective on July 1, 2002) which provided that a judge and 12 juries shall try all cases involving crime set forth in Article 31(3) of the code upon a motion by the defendant.

According to statistics, the number of defendants demanding jury trials is increasing, causing a backlog of over 6 months as of January 2003. Statistics also indicate that juries are 10 to 20 times more likely to acquit than judges -- "judges acquit less than 1% of defendants, whereas juries acquit 15 - 20% of defendants." This problem has been analyzed by many judges and scholars and many have argued that Russians do not have the legal consciousness needed for jury trials. When investigating the motivations behind jury acquittals, many judges found that jury acquittals (or verdicts) were not always legal or founded but based on sentiments. According to some investigation, a defendant charged with murdering a woman was acquitted not because the jury thought the defendant was innocent of all charges but because of sympathetic reasons-- according to one juror, she relieved his crimes because she thought to herself, "I have a son the same age as the defendant." Decisions based on pity and sympathy is made worse by the historical distrust of the police and the government.

Though some judges have argued that common people are incapable of understanding complex issues, others have remained hopeful in the jury system. They attribute the high acquittal rate to the mismatch between the legal culture of the people versus the legal culture of the state. In former Moscow City Court judge Sergei Pashin's opinion, acquittals are a result of the juries nullifying cruel criminal laws. For the first time, jurors finally have the ability to express their views about the criminal laws through their verdicts. They also have the ability to fulfill the role as representatives of citizens against the state and express their dislike for the old system.

It is natural that the system has produced some critics over the 10 years since its introduction. As a bystander, I am supportive of Russia's progress towards creating a fairer standard and justice. It will be interesting to see if the citizen can triumphantly prove their legal consciousness against the old system...