A group of Russian State Duma deputies from the Union...

A group of Russian State Duma deputies from the Union of Right Forces (SPS) faction said it intends to propose a bill to abolish the death penalty from the Criminal Code.
SPS deputy, Pavel Krasheninnikov, who also heads the parliamentary legislation committee, said following a ruling by the Constitutional Court, Russian courts cannot hand down death sentences until the jury system is introduced throughout the entire territory of the country.
A draft new Criminal Procedural Code [which has been] passed in the second reading stipulates that the introduction of the jury system in all of Russia's regions must be completed by January 1, 2003.
The legal ban on handing down death sentences will be lifted from that moment and that is why the SPS deputies are seeking to have the death penalty legally abolished and replaced by life imprisonment for especially grave crimes, Krasheninnikov said.