Legal status of the convicted person when returning the criminal case to the prosecutor at the stage of cassation appeal

Introduction: the paper provides the answers to the questions concerning the legal status of a convicted person when returning a criminal case to the prosecutor at the stage of cassation appeal against a court decision. The authors reveal the basic concepts affecting the rights of the convicted person, the term of his detention, the grounds entailing the deterioration of the situation of the convicted person and the term allowing such a situation. The purpose of the study: to characterize the features of the legal status of the convicted person when returning a criminal case to the prosecutor at the stage of cassation appeal against court decisions. The objectives of the study: to assess the institution of the return of criminal cases for additional investigation; to analyze the procedural status of the convicted person at the stage of returning the criminal case to the prosecutor during the cassation appeal against court decisions, as well as to offer recommendations for its improvement. Methods: the methodological framework for the study is represented by a set of methods of scientific cognition, among which it is necessary to distinguish the general scientific, systemic, comparative legal and institutional ones. Results: having assessed the materials of the judicial practice, it should be concluded that the court sessions in a significant number of criminal cases returned to the prosecutor have a significant discrepancy between the features of judicial and investigative practice with the legal positions of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation; the problems of the legislative regulation of the legal status of the convicted person in the context of the studied issues are identified. Conclusions: the modern criminal process is characterized bylegal uncertainty, which leads to a violation of the rights of a person subjected to criminal prosecution in terms of his detention in isolation from society, due to the absence of a formal limitation of such terms. A legal gap is also the fact that neither the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation nor Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of June 25, 2019, No.19 “On the application of the norms of Chapter 47.1 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation regulating proceedings in the cassation court” contains grounds providing for the deterioration of the situation of the convicted person.