Lifelong imprisonment in the practice of sentencing in cases of murder with aggravating circumstances

The article presents the results of generalization of court practice of imposing lifelong imprisonment punishment for murder with aggravating circumstances. The author comes to the conclusion that courts often face difficulty in justifying that lifelong imprisonment has been chosen as a relevant a measure of punishment. To maintain fairness and form a consistent judicial practice, it is advisable to establish special rules of imposing such kind of sentences and expand the list of situations when lifelong imprisonment can not be imposed, although it is stipulated in the sanction of the Criminal Code article.