Death Penalty: the Rationale for Maintaining

Abstract

Review. The article discusses the issues of the death penalty as a form of criminal punishment. The author examines the rationale of its maintaining in the criminal legislation of Russia. It is stated that the Constitution of the Russian Federation provides for the possibility of establishing the death penalty and the legislature determines the conditions and procedure for the application of this penalty, i.e. recognizes the legitimacy of this institution. In this connection, the article is subjected to critical analysis of the position of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation about the impossibility of the use of the death penalty in Russia today. Through the prism of a historical analysis of this kind of sentence and the modern practice of its application (or non-application) in different countries of the world it is stated whether there is a possibility, the need and rationale for the use of the death penalty in combating crime in Russia. As a result, the author concludes that the death penalty as a form of criminal punishment in Russia must be applied, at least for the most egregious and high-profile cases of murders (especially those that involve crimes of terrorist focus).