On the Equivalent Legislative Provision of the Right of Each Accused to Choose the Form of Justice with the Participation of Jurors in Group Cases

Almost thirteen years have passed since the amendments were made to the Code of Criminal Procedure regarding the regulation of the allocation of a separate criminal case against persons who do not agree to a trial by jury. The legislator laid the basis for a positive solution to this issue on the requirement to establish the absence of obstacles to a comprehensive and objective resolution of the merits of the main and highlighted cases. The law enforcement officer, referring to the impossibility of achieving this, in the vast majority of cases decides on the expediency of considering a group criminal case with the participation of jurors, ignoring the expression of the will of the defendants who disagree with this in accordance with the procedure established by law. The purpose is to substantiate the need for an equivalent provision of the right of each accused to have his criminal case examined by a court with the participation of jurors in cases provided for by law. Tasks: to analyze the current legal regulation of ensuring the right of the accused to choose such a form of criminal justice; from the standpoint of equality of each participant in the criminal process, who has the same procedural status, to propose a solution to the identified problem. The dialectical method of cognition was used as the main one. Analysis, synthesis, formal legal and other general scientific and special legal methods were also used. The author concludes that in order to achieve an equivalent provision for the realization by each defendant of his right to the administration of justice in the form he desires, in any case, when in a group criminal case in which several people are accused of committing one crime potentially falling under the jurisdiction of a jury trial, one part of the accomplices announced the consideration of the case with a jury, and the other – solely by a judge or a professional collegial composition of the court, to decide on the allocation of a criminal case to a separate proceeding in respect of that part of the accused who do not trust the jury.