Russia's Supreme Court proposes shrinking juries to four members

Russia's Supreme Court has drafted a proposal to overhaul the country's jury trial system, according to reports from RBC, Kommersant, and Vedomosti. The plan envisions a mixed panel in which jurors would sit alongside a professional judge, who could enter the deliberation room to help resolve questions that come up during voting.

Supreme Court Judge Sergei Zelenin, who presented the proposal, argued the change would significantly speed up proceedings and cut the time courts need to hear cases.

Jury size already shrinking

The proposal would reduce jury size to just four people. Juries had 12 members until 2018, when the number was first cut; they currently have eight members in regional courts and six in district and garrison military courts.

The plan would also let people over 65 serve as jurors, provided they are willing and in good enough health. It would streamline jury selection as well, including scrapping the practice of dissolving a jury panel judged incapable of reaching an objective verdict.

Rationale and pushback

Zelenin described the existing system as an artificial import from the Anglo-American legal tradition, saying the separation of powers between jurors and a professional judge is a feature of Anglo-Saxon law that is foreign to the continental legal tradition.

Defendants can request a jury trial at various stages of proceedings. According to RBC, such juries most commonly hear cases involving murder, serious bodily harm resulting in death through negligence, and organized armed gang activity.

Researchers at the Institute for the Rule of Law have repeatedly pointed out that the acquittal rate in jury trials runs roughly ten times higher than in trials without a jury, where it stays below 1%.