Покарання у виді довічного позбавлення волі в Україні: шлях до гуманізації

Abstract

Проаналізовано кримінальне законодавство України, яке регламентує покарання у виді довічного позбавлення волі, надано його кримінально-правову характеристику. Акцентовано на стан дотримання і забезпечення прав та обов’язків громадян, які відбувають цей вид покарання. Зроблено спробу охрактеризувати сучасний стан і тенденції розвитку вказаного виду покарання в кримінальному праві України. The article analyzes the criminal legislation of Ukraine, which regulates the punishment in the form of life imprisonment, its criminal and legal characteristic is given, the heed is paid to the state of observance and ensuring the rights and obligations of citizens who serve this type of punishment, an attempt to characterize the current state and trends in the development of a specific type of punishment in the criminal law of Ukraine is made. Life imprisonment is imposed only on the verdict of the court. Other types of punishment can be applied not only by the court, and not only by the court’s verdict. Thus, the application of another punishment for a convicted person instead of that which was set by the trial is carried out by President of Ukraine in the form of pardon. Applying of another type of punishment for the person who committed a crime, in a cassation order or in the case of replacing the unserved part of the sentence with a milder, thus is carried out by a court, but not by a sentence, by a resolution. Punishment in the form of life imprisonment is a coercive measure, which is applied on behalf of the state by a court judgment to a person convicted of the aggravated felony, and consists of the indefinite (until the end of life) isolation of the convicted from society by holding him in specially designed for this criminal and executive institutions. Restrictions on the range of persons subject to a particular type of punishment may be found to be justified only when there are necessary grounds for doing this. Yes, there is no doubt, for example, that the prohibition of the applying of public and corrective work for the disabled or on persons who have reached the retirement age, as the nature of these penalties implies the ability of the convicted persons to them. The prohibition of the application of life imprisonment to the persons mentioned in Part 2 of Art. 64 of the Criminal Code does not have any grounds. By themselves, the achievement or failure to reach a certain age or the state of pregnancy is not a ground for such a reason. Therefore, the prohibition of the application of life imprisonment for the persons mentioned in Part 2 of Art. 64 of the Criminal Code is not only a violation of the principle of equality of citizens before the law, but also a kind of indulgence to these individuals for the commitment of particularly serious crimes.