Criminal-legal qualification of the executor's excess in the commission of a terrorist act by an organized group: problems of theory and law enforcement practice

The article is dedicated to the criminal law qualification of the excess of the executor in the commission of a terrorist act by an organized group. The focus is on the limits of the common intent of the accomplices and the boundary between the permissible specification of the agreed dangerous method and the individual exceeding of the executor beyond the joint plan. The relevance is determined by the high social danger of terrorist crimes and the persistent tendency in law enforcement towards the extensive attribution of severe consequences to all participants regardless of the actual scope of their intent. The aim of the research is to formulate functional criteria for distinguishing between excess and specification, adapted to the specifics of Article 205 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and forms of participation by an "organized group", to build an algorithm for qualification, and to identify evidential guidelines for investigation and the court. Additionally, the influence of hierarchy and regulation within the group on the "risk acceptance model" is analyzed, as well as the relationship of a terrorist act with related offenses in the presence of personal motives of the executor. Dogmatic interpretation of the norms of the Criminal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation, comparative legal analysis of approaches to excess in violent and terrorist offenses, casuistic modeling of typical situations, logical-structural synthesis, and evidential analysis of communications, distribution of roles, and internal prohibitions were applied. The novelty of the work lies in the operationalization of the category "risk acceptance model" as an element of establishing the coverage of intent among accomplices in terrorism cases and linking this category with the target characteristic of Article 205 of the Criminal Code and the regulations of organized groups. Three blocks of criteria for distinguishing between excess and specification have been formulated: method and its parameters, target characteristic, foreseeability, and acceptance of risk; a step-by-step qualification algorithm has been proposed, including reconstruction of the agreement, comparison of the agreed and implemented method, verification of the functional connection of additional actions, and distribution of responsibility with the application of Article 36 of the Criminal Code. Evidence indicators for the limits of common intent have been identified (instructions for minimizing harm, direct prohibitions on means, actual awareness of participants). Conclusions are drawn about the inadmissibility of presuming the coverage of intent for any severe consequences, the necessity for precise adjustments to judicial explanations, and the practical effect of the proposed model: reduction of unjustified collective responsibility, and increased predictability and uniformity of law enforcement.