A woman’s right to self-defense.

Prosecutors are asking the Moscow City Court to overturn a woman’s murder conviction on the grounds that she acted in self-defense against a man who was trying to rape her.

In what is being seen as a landmark ruling on a woman’s right to self-defense, the City Prosecutor’s Office on Tuesday asked the court to overturn a verdict last Thursday by the Lyublinsky District Court.

Alexandra Ivannikova, 29, stabbed Sergei Bagdasaryan, 23 in the thigh with a knife after waving down his car for a ride in December 2003. the knife struck Bagdasaryan in an artery, and he was dead by the time police arrived at the scene.

The Lyublinsky District Court found Ivannikova guilty of murder and gave her a suspended sentence. District prosecutors had sought a three-year prison sentence.

City prosecutors appeared to have taken note of public outcry over the conviction. Ivannikova’s relatives and independent observers had expressed dismay at the original verdict of the district court, which found her guilty despite accepting that she had acted in self-defense to avoid being raped.

The prosecutors’ decision to seek to overturn the conviction came as a surprise to Ivannikova and her lawyer.

“I sighed with relief when I got a suspended sentence last week, and I cannot say how surprised I was to learn the prosecutors are on my side,” Ivannikova said by telephone. “I realized that this is not over yet and no one knows which decision the city court will take.”

Ivannikova got into Bagdasaryan’s Lada car in southern Moscow after he agreed to take her home for 100 rubles, according to court documents. She became alarmed after she noticed that he had passed her house and turned instead into a dark side street. Bagdasaryan parked the car and locked the doors. He attempted to undress her but she managed to take a kitchen knife out of her purse and stab him in the leg. Then she got out of the car and ran away. She stopped a police car and told officers what she had done, by the time they found Bagdasaryan he was already dead.

The turning point was the adoption of an amendment to the Criminal Code late last year that rejected the concept of adequate response. Earlier, if one was attacked by a fist, he was allowed by law to defend himself only with a fist and not with a knife or a gun. Now someone defending himself and his property can use a gun against anyone trying to get into his apartment, regardless of whether the intruder is armed or not.

According to the Interior Ministry statistics, about 8,000 rapes and attempted rapes were recorded last year.

Although the number of rape cases that reached court was quite large, it were only the tip of the iceberg. Policemen often try to prevent these cases from being recorded in order to keep good clear-up rates.

Oksana Yablokova

The Moscow Times

Activity 12. Get acquainted with methods of execution and discuss all of them. Express your opinion whether they are humane or not.

Methods of Death.

Executions are usually performed at midnight – when everything else is quiet in prison. Outside the gates, protesters carry candles and wave signs. Inside, all prison security officers are on duty. The prisoner is led into the room where he is to die, secured to a chair or table, and fitted with heart-rate monitors. He is then left alone. Select witnesses watch the execution through a special viewing window. After the prisoner has died, a doctor signs a death warrant and the body is taken to a morgue where it is prepared for burial.

The following are legal methods of execution in the US: