Tamara Yakysheva

The article is devoted to the analysis of the principle of freedom to evaluate evidence and the issue of including the concept of “conscience of a judge” in the Code of Criminal Procedure. The authors propose to add to art. 17 of the Criminal Procedure Code provisions about the independence of judges according to art. 120 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation and add to the article the theses on the purpose of identifying the true circumstances of the criminal case under consideration, based on which a fair evaluation of the evidence is possible. It is also proposed to supplement Chapter 2 of art. 17.1 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the RF “The principle of a substantiated and lawful judgment and sentence based on the conscientiousness of a judge”.