The grounds for prosecutors to appeal acquittals, as well as case law regarding the granting of such appeals, were the subject of a lecture given as part of the Legal High School by Alexander Shadrin, a partner at Barristers, JSC. He pointed to a general trend toward a decrease in the number of acquittals being overturned and illustrated his point with examples from case law.

The lecturer presented the position of the Supreme Court, as set forth in the dissenting opinion of Justice A.P. Bushchenko, who considers it possible to appeal rulings by appellate courts that overturn first-instance verdicts (Case No. 490/14736/14-k).

Mr. Shadrin cited examples from his own practice where a client was acquitted, while the prosecutor’s appeal was dismissed on the grounds that the technical recording of the court hearing had been destroyed; he also described cases in which both the appeal and the cassation petition were denied. To prevent the prosecution from manipulating trial materials, Alexander Shadrin recommends obtaining a copy of the technical transcript of the hearing after each court session; this copy must be provided free of charge, as the Code of Criminal Procedure does not include court fees as a category of litigation costs.

A party’s absence from a court hearing (for example, due to illness) without documentary evidence should not serve as grounds for the prosecutor to appeal an acquittal, since the victim’s right to personal participation is not absolute. The lecturer cited real-world cases where the prosecution’s systematic failure to appear at court hearings even served as grounds for dismissing the criminal case. He also referred to similar examples from the judicial practices of other countries.

The lecturer noted that in the United States, a prosecutor cannot appeal an acquittal at all; this is precisely why plea bargains are widely used there, as they benefit both the prosecution— if it is not 100% certain of securing a conviction, as well as to the defendant, since it allows the defendant to avoid a severe punishment (including the death penalty, which is applied in some states).

Speaking about a judge’s right to issue a dissenting opinion, the lecturer emphasized that a dissenting opinion by a judge in an appellate court can serve as a sort of “safeguard” in cases involving mass protests, and cited the example of the trial concerning mass riots in Kharkiv, during which the police detained dozens of people, including bystanders who had no connection to the riots.

The lecturer analyzed the advantages of the provisions in the new version of the Code of Criminal Procedure regarding the defense of the accused. He noted that the prosecution often perceives an acquittal as a personal defeat and files an appeal without compelling arguments. Fortunately, in the case under consideration, the court dismissed such an appeal. However, there are also instances where the opposite occurs.