A Law Student of Samara University Developed an Electronic Assistant for Investigators and Prosecutors

Valery Yakhunkin, a student of the Department of Criminal Procedure and Forensic Science at Samara University’s Institute of Law, has developed the software program that will help prosecutors, investigators and judges more thoroughly verify criminal cases for possible errors and violations committed during the investigation. The development has received the Rospatent certificate of state registration and has already been approved by a number of law enforcement and judicial authorities in the Samara Region.

"This software program is the electronic method of step-by-step verification of a criminal case, the investigation of which has already been completed, for identifying possible errors and violations committed by the investigative authorities during the investigation. This verification is carried out by the prosecutor when the investigated criminal case, with the attached indictment, is submitted to the prosecutor’s office, for the purpose of making a decision on further transfer of the case to the court. The program helps optimize this verification, being considered a kind of electronic assistant that tells the prosecutor exactly where and at what specific points in the investigation errors could have been made, depending on which article the criminal case was initiated. It is worth emphasizing that the software program itself does not detect errors; it only prompts and reminds the user exactly where errors and violations could have been made, and helps conduct the verification more carefully, step by step, in compliance with all procedural rules. The Rospatent certificate of registration of the computer program has been received for the development”, said Valery Yakhunkin.

The software program is written in Python and runs on regular Windows computers. The student was assisted with the development by Yulia Kuvaldina, Associate Professor of the Department of Criminal Procedure and Forensic Science at Samara University’s Institute of Law, and Aleksandr Bakhchev, Deputy Prosecutor of Samara District in Samara (he currently works at the prosecutor’s office in Nizhny Novgorod).

“At present, there are no analogues of this software program in Russia. The development undoubtedly has elements of scientific novelty and is aimed at optimizing prosecutors’ activities in making decisions on an investigated criminal case. The software program does not use artificial intelligence elements, and no neural networks are connected here, although it may be a matter of time. As stated in Article 17 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation, the prosecutor, the investigator, the inquirer must evaluate evidence in accordance with their inner conviction, based on the totality of evidence available in the criminal case, guided by the law and conscience. As for errors and violations, both the prosecutor and the judge together with the head of the investigative authority independently assess a particular violation for the possibility, or absence of the possibility, to eliminate it in the subsequent stages of the proceedings”, emphasized Yulia Kuvaldina.

According to Yulia Kuvaldina, the software program is useful not only for law enforcement activities, it can also serve as an electronic practical “handbook” that contains detailed information on the method of verifying criminal cases and the list of possible errors and violations committed by officials of the preliminary investigation authorities. The development is also interesting as a scientific and practical guide, with elements of illustrating judicial practice on the return of a criminal case by the prosecutor to the investigator and by the court to the prosecutor.

“This software program can be considered as an electronic assistant not only for prosecutors, but also for the heads of investigative authorities when making a decision on the approval of the indictment, as well as for judges when making a decision on the criminal case, preparing for the court hearing, and evaluating available information for subsequent sentencing or other judicial decision. The development has already been successfully tested in various law enforcement and judicial authorities in our region. Currently, the issue of the possible use of this software program in the Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Samara Region is being discussed”, noted Yulia Kuvaldina.