Surrender: forms of fixation and rules of use in the process of investigation and consideration of a criminal case

The object of the study is the doctrinal understanding of surrender, the procedural relations that arise between a person reporting the fact of a crime committed by him or in complicity with him, a defender and an employee of the criminal prosecution authority upon receipt of a reason to initiate a criminal case or testimony of a suspect, judicial practice of recognizing surrender as evidence in a criminal case. The purpose of the study is to identify trends in law enforcement practice and consider the possibility of using a confession as evidence in a criminal case. The research methods of the study: the method of analysis (when studying reviews of the courts of appeal and cassation regarding the recognition of the absence of a defender upon receipt of a confession as inadmissible evidence in a criminal case); the method of generalization (when drawing conclusions about the forms of fixing the fact that a person who applied to law enforcement agencies committed a crime). Turning himself in is one of the controversial points in terms of guarantees of participation in such a report of a crime by a lawyer. The revealed forms and methods of bringing the fact of a socially dangerous act committed by a person does not allow to guarantee in all cases the timeliness of inviting a defender (for example, the perpetrator of an accident reporting the fact of hitting a pedestrian with subsequent appearance in the criminal prosecution authorities). Taking into account the diversity of such appeals, as well as respecting constitutional rights, we suggest that in all cases informing law enforcement agencies and appearing before criminal prosecution authorities be considered a mitigating circumstance, regardless of whether the subsequent confession will be recognized as inadmissible evidence in a criminal case.