On possibility and criteria of attainment unbiased truth in criminal proceeding
Doubts in possibility of absolute attainment of unbiased truth in court's 219 knowledge-conclusions when defining the facts of a criminal case stated in criminal proceeding literature are confirmed with tendencies of practice. A large number of unsolved crimes and judicial errors are typical both for the Soviet and for modern period of time. Another ground for such doubts is mediated knowledge about facts of criminal case, which is always past events for those who define them. Such a feature of this knowledge by rules of challenge does not allow posing direct observation and perception of these facts by judges and other subjects of proof as criteria of its unbiased truth. It is also impossible to consider experimental observation of the facts as a criterion of attainment of unbiased truth. Moral certainty of the court in real existence of established facts, in consequence of its subjectivity, reference to psychical events which are presented as notional cannot be criteria of attainment of unbiased truth. Moral certainty of the court should be considered as a criterion of credibility of its knowledge about established facts, because the notion credibility means trustworthy, characterized by relevancy, validity, certitude, and this notion is not identical to unbiased truth. Trustworthy knowledge about established facts of a criminal case depends on special possibilities of subjects of proof associated with proper understanding of what knowledge should be considered as credible. The conclusions of the court about credibility of knowledge on established facts of a criminal case are relative, due to a confined prospect to find out all circumstances necessary for these conclusions, subjective and objective conditions of knowing these facts. Consequently, there are no precise criteria of attainment of unbiased truth in court's conclusions about establishing the facts of a criminal case, but it is necessary to attain such knowledge-conclusions by the court, established on moral certainty and in the absence of unavoidable doubts of credibility