Evolution of the procedural form of release from criminal liability, punishment in connection with the change of the situation in the Russian criminal procedural legislation of the XX-XXI centuries

A study of court decisions on release from punishment in connection with a change in the situation indicates the absence of a united approach in the formation of judicial practice in terms of determining the procedural form of application of Art. 80.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The analysis of the criminal procedure legislation also does not provide a certain answer to the question of the procedural form for release from punishment in connection with a change in the situation. In this regard, the author turns to the history of the issue and, on the basis of a retrospective analysis of criminal and criminal procedural legislation, comes to the conclusion that at various stages of the development of norms on release from punishment in connection with a change in the situation, the procedural form of their application is the decision of a guilty verdict without sentencing.