His name was Arkady Neyland. He was born in 1949 in Leningrad, in a working class family. His father was a locksmith, his mother was a nurse in a hospital. Apparently, he received a poor upbringing, suffered beatings from his mother and stepfather and was malnourished. He ran away from home, from the age of 7 (in his own words) he was registered in the children's room of the police. At the age of 12, he was sent to a boarding school by his mother, from where he soon fled due to conflicts with peers. He left for Moscow, where he was detained by the police and taken back to Leningrad.
Until the end of 1963 he worked at the Lenpishchmash enterprise, where he was absent and was noticed in theft. He had several drives to the police on the facts of petty theft and hooliganism, but the case did not reach the court. On January 24, 1964, he was again detained for theft, but escaped from custody. According to Neiland, then he decided to "take revenge" by committing some "terrible murder." At the same time, he wanted to raise money to go to Sukhumi and "start a new life there." He fulfilled his intention on January 27, having previously stolen an ax from his parents for this purpose.
Double murder
The scene of the crime was recreated according to the testimony of A. Neiland, interviewed witnesses, forensic experts and firefighters. The crime was committed at the address: Sestroretskaya street, house 3, apartment 9. Neiland chose the victim by chance. He wanted to rob a rich apartment, and the front door upholstered in leather served as the criterion of "wealth" for him. The apartment was 37-year-old housewife Larisa Mikhailovna Kupreeva and her three-year-old son. Neiland rang the doorbell and introduced himself as a postal worker, after which Kupreeva let him into the apartment.
After making sure that there was no one in the apartment except the woman and the child, the offender locked the front door and began to beat Kupreeva with an ax. To prevent the neighbors from hearing the screams, he turned on the tape recorder in the room at full volume. After Kupreeva ceased to show signs of life, Neiland killed her son with an ax. After that, the offender searched the apartment, ate the food found at the owners' place. Neiland stole money and a camera from the apartment, with which he had previously taken the murdered woman in obscene poses (he planned to sell these photographs later). In order to cover up his tracks, Arkady Neyland, before leaving, turned on the gas on the kitchen stove and set fire to the wooden floor in the room.
The murder weapon - the ax - he left at the crime scene.
The neighbors, smelling the burning, called the firemen. Due to the fact that the firefighters arrived promptly, the crime scene remained practically unaffected by the fire.
Based on the fingerprints left at the crime scene and thanks to the testimony of witnesses who saw Neiland that evening, he was detained in Sukhumi on January 30.
"The Neiland affair"
Arkady Neiland, already at the first interrogations, fully confessed to what he had done and actively helped the investigation. According to investigators, he behaved confidently, he was flattered by the attention to his person. He spoke about the murder calmly, without remorse. He only felt sorry for the child, but he justified his murder by the fact that there was no other way out after the murder of the woman. He was not afraid of punishment, he said that he, as a minor, would be forgiven for everything.
The court decision in the Neiland case, adopted on March 23, 1964, was unexpected for everyone: a 15-year-old teenager was sentenced to death, which was contrary to the legislation of the RSFSR, according to which persons from 18 to 60 years old could be sentenced to capital punishment (moreover, this norm was adopted just under Khrushchev in 1960: in the 1930-1950s, the death penalty for minors was allowed in accordance with the Decree of the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR dated April 7, 1935 No. 155 "On measures to combat juvenile delinquency", which prescribed "minors, starting from the age of 12, convicted of committing theft, causing violence, bodily harm, mutilation, murder or attempted murder, to bring to a criminal court with the application of all measures of criminal punishment ")
The verdict caused a mixed reaction in the society. On the one hand, the townsfolk, stricken by the cruelty of the crime, awaited the most severe sentence to Neiland. On the other hand, the verdict provoked an extremely negative reaction from the intelligentsia and professional lawyers, who pointed out the inconsistency of the verdict with the current legislation and international agreements.
There is a legend according to which Leonid I. Brezhnev petitioned N. S. Khrushchev to replace Arkady Neiland's death sentence with imprisonment, but received a harsh refusal. According to another legend, for a long time they could not find the executor of the execution in Leningrad - no one undertook to shoot the teenager.
On August 11, 1964, Arkady Neiland was shot in Leningrad.
The only teenager sentenced to capital punishment in the USSR was 15-year-old Arkady Neiland, who grew up in a dysfunctional family in Leningrad. Arkady was born in 1949 into a working class family, his mother was a nurse in a hospital, his father worked as a locksmith. From childhood, the boy did not finish eating and suffered beatings from his mother and stepfather. At the age of 7, he ran away from home for the first time, being registered in the children's room of the police. At the age of 12, he ended up in a boarding school, soon escaped from there, after which he took a criminal path.
In 1963 he worked at the Lenpishchmash enterprise. Repeatedly got into the police for theft and hooliganism. Having escaped from custody, he decided to take revenge on the police by committing a terrible crime, and at the same time to get money to go to Sukhumi and start a new life there. On January 27, 1964, armed with an ax, Neiland set out in search of a “rich apartment”. In the house number 3 on Sestroretskaya Street, he chose the 9th apartment, the front door of which was upholstered in leather. Posing as a postal worker, he ended up in the apartment of 37-year-old Larisa Kupreeva, who was here with her 3-year-old son. Neiland closed the front door and began to beat the woman with an ax, turning on the radio at full volume drowned out the screams of the victim. Having dealt with the mother, the teenager killed her son in cold blood.
Then he ate the food found in the apartment, stole money and a camera, with which he took several photos of the murdered woman. To hide the traces of the crime, he set fire to the wooden floor and turned on the gas in the kitchen. However, the firefighters who arrived on time quickly extinguished everything. Arriving police found the murder weapon and Neiland's prints
Eyewitnesses said they saw a teenager. On January 30, Arkady Neyland was detained in Sukhumi. He immediately confessed to everything he had done and told how he killed the victims. He only felt sorry for the child he had killed and thought that he would get away with everything because he was still a minor.
On March 23, 1964, by a court decision, Neiland was sentenced to death, which was contrary to the law of the RSFSR, according to which capital punishment was applied only to persons aged 18 to 60 years. Many approved of this decision, but the intelligentsia condemned the violation of the law. Despite various requests for commutation of the sentence, on August 11, 1964, the sentence was carried out.
During the last arrest, the thought came to Neiland's head that next time he needed to be robbed and killed so that there would be no witnesses to the crime. Returning to the same apartment on Sestroretskaya Street on January 27, 1964, Arkady armed himself with a tourist hatchet. He knew that a woman with a child lived in the apartment, which meant that it would be easy to deal with them. The main calculation of the criminal was that even if he was detained, the death penalty would not be applied to minors, which means that the maximum that he could get was prison.
In order to be allowed into the apartment, he decided to introduce himself as a postman. When the hostess - Larisa Kupreeva opened the door - he immediately pounced on her. The woman began a desperate struggle not only for her life, but also for the life of her child, but the criminal with the ax was stronger. After the murder of a woman, he killed the child in cold blood, after which he ate without a twinge of conscience in the kitchen. To hide the traces of the crime, he set fire to the apartment, but thanks to the prompt work of firefighters and the vigilance of neighbors, the fire was extinguished in time. At the crime scene, operatives managed to find fingerprints, which became the main argument in court.
The only teenager sentenced to capital punishment in the USSR was 15-year-old Arkady Neiland, who grew up in a dysfunctional family in Leningrad. Arkady was born in 1949 into a working class family, his mother was a nurse in a hospital, his father worked as a locksmith. From childhood, the boy did not finish eating and suffered beatings from his mother and stepfather. At the age of 7, he ran away from home for the first time, being registered in the children's room of the police. At the age of 12, he ended up in a boarding school, soon escaped from there, after which he took a criminal path.
Then he ate the food found in the apartment, stole money and a camera, with which he took several photos of the murdered woman. To hide the traces of the crime, he set fire to the wooden floor and turned on the gas in the kitchen. However, the firefighters who arrived on time quickly extinguished everything. The police arrived and found the murder weapon and Neiland's prints.
Eyewitnesses said they saw a teenager. On January 30, Arkady Neyland was detained in Sukhumi. He immediately confessed to everything he had done and told how he killed the victims. He only felt sorry for the child he had killed and thought that he would get away with everything because he was still a minor.
On March 23, 1964, by a court decision, Neiland was sentenced to death, which was contrary to the law of the RSFSR, according to which capital punishment was applied only to persons aged 18 to 60 years. Many approved of this decision, but the intelligentsia condemned the violation of the law. Despite various requests for commutation of the sentence, the sentence was carried out on August 11, 1964.
Until the end of 1963 he worked at the Lenpishchmash enterprise, where he was absent and was noticed in theft. He had several drives to the police on the facts of petty theft and hooliganism, but the case did not reach the court. On January 24, 1964, he was again detained for theft, but escaped from custody. According to Neiland, then he decided to "take revenge" by committing some "terrible murder." At the same time, he wanted to raise money to go to Sukhumi and "start a new life there." He fulfilled his intention on January 27, having previously stolen an ax from his parents for this purpose.
Double murder
The scene of the crime was recreated according to the testimony of A. Neiland, interviewed witnesses, forensic experts and firefighters. The crime was committed at the address: Sestroretskaya street, house 3, apartment 9. Neiland chose the victim by chance. He wanted to rob a rich apartment, and the front door upholstered in leather served as the criterion of "wealth" for him. The apartment was 37-year-old housewife Larisa Mikhailovna Kupreeva and her three-year-old son. Neiland rang the doorbell and introduced himself as a postal worker, after which Kupreeva let him into the apartment.
After making sure that there was no one in the apartment except the woman and the child, the offender locked the front door and began to beat Kupreeva with an ax. To prevent the neighbors from hearing the screams, he turned on the tape recorder in the room at full volume. After Kupreeva ceased to show signs of life, Neiland killed her son with an ax. After the murder, the criminal searched the apartment and ate the food found at the owners' place. Neiland stole money and a camera from the apartment, with which he had previously taken the murdered woman in obscene poses (he planned to sell these photographs later). In order to cover up his tracks, Arkady Neyland, before leaving, turned on the gas on the kitchen stove and set fire to the wooden floor in the room.
The murder weapon - the ax - he left at the crime scene.
The neighbors, smelling the burning, called the firemen. Due to the fact that the firefighters arrived promptly, the crime scene remained practically unaffected by the fire.
Based on the fingerprints left at the crime scene and thanks to the testimony of witnesses who saw Neiland that evening, he was detained in Sukhumi on January 30.
"The Neiland affair"
Arkady Neiland, already at the first interrogations, fully confessed to what he had done and actively helped the investigation. According to investigators, he behaved confidently, he was flattered by the attention to his person. He spoke about the murder calmly, without remorse. He only felt sorry for the child, but he justified his murder by the fact that there was no other way out after the murder of the woman. He was not afraid of punishment, he said that he, as a minor, would be forgiven for everything.
The court decision in the Neiland case, adopted on March 23, 1964, was unexpected for everyone: a 15-year-old teenager was sentenced to death, which was contrary to the legislation of the RSFSR, according to which persons from 18 to 60 years old could be sentenced to capital punishment (moreover, this norm was adopted just under Khrushchev in 1960: in the 1930-1950s, the death penalty for minors was allowed in accordance with the Decree of the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR dated April 7, 1935 No. 155 "On measures to combat juvenile delinquency", which prescribed "minors, starting from the age of 12, convicted of committing theft, causing violence, bodily harm, mutilation, murder or attempted murder, to bring to a criminal court with the application of all measures of criminal punishment ")
The verdict caused a mixed reaction in the society. On the one hand, the townsfolk, stricken by the cruelty of the crime, awaited the most severe sentence to Neiland. On the other hand, the verdict provoked an extremely negative reaction from the intelligentsia and professional lawyers, who pointed out the inconsistency of the verdict with the current legislation and international agreements.
There is a legend according to which Leonid I. Brezhnev petitioned N. S. Khrushchev to replace Arkady Neiland's death sentence with imprisonment, but received a harsh refusal. According to another legend, for a long time they could not find the executor of the execution in Leningrad - no one undertook to shoot the teenager.
Pyhalov:
“It turns out that the maximum punishment for premeditated murder with aggravated circumstances (Article 136 of the RSFSR Criminal Code) was 10 years in prison (Criminal Code of the RSFSR. . P.70).
- Intentional infliction of grievous bodily harm (Article 142) entailed up to 8 years of imprisonment, and if it caused the death of the victim or was committed in a manner bearing the character of torment or torture - up to 10 years (Ibid. P. 71).
- Rape (Article 153) - up to 5 years, and if the result was the suicide of the victim, or the victim of the crime was a minor, then up to 8 years (Ibid. Pp. 73–74).
- Theft (Article 162) with the maximum bouquet of aggravating circumstances - up to 5 years (Ibid. Pp. 76–77) ”.
In the post-Soviet period, many mass media periodically began to refer to the rather well-known and controversial topic of the introduction of the death penalty for minors in the “Stalinist” Soviet Union. As a rule, this circumstance was cited as another argument for criticizing I.V. Stalin and the Soviet system of justice and administration in the 1930s - 1940s. Was this really the case?
Let's start right away with the fact that it was Soviet Russia that maximally humanized the pre-revolutionary criminal legislation, including in the direction of the criminal liability of minors. For example, under Peter I, a lower age threshold for criminal responsibility was established. He composed only seven years. It was from the age of seven that the child could be put on trial. In 1885, minors aged ten to seventeen years old could be convicted if they understood the meaning of the acts committed, that is, not for all criminal offenses and depending on personal development.
The possibility of criminal prosecution of minors continued until the October Revolution. Only on January 14, 1918, the Decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR "On commissions for minors" was adopted. In accordance with this document, criminal responsibility began from the age of 17, and from 14 to 17 years old, criminal cases were considered by the commission on juvenile affairs, which made a decision on educational measures in relation to a minor. As a rule, minors were tried to re-educate by all possible efforts and not be allowed to be imprisoned, where they could fall under the influence of older criminals.
In the famous "Republic Shkid" it was just about the numerous young criminals and delinquents. They were re-educated in "Skida", but they were not subjected to criminal punishment. - not put in jail or camp. The practice of prosecuting children and adolescents under the age of 14 has generally remained in the pre-revolutionary past. The Criminal Code of the RSFSR, adopted in 1922, established the lower limit of prosecution under most articles of 16 years, and from the age of 14 they were prosecuted only for especially grave crimes. As for the death penalty, it could not be applied to all underage citizens of the USSR, even purely theoretically. Article 22 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR emphasized that "persons under the age of eighteen at the time of the commission of the crime, and women in a state of pregnancy, cannot be sentenced to death." That is, it was the Soviet government that laid the paradigm of juvenile justice, which remains in Russia to this day, after the collapse of the Soviet political system.
However, in the early 1930s. the situation in the Soviet Union has changed somewhat. The complicating crime situation and the constant attempts of hostile states to carry out sabotage activities in the Soviet Union led to the fact that in 1935 the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars really adopted a resolution "On measures to combat juvenile delinquency."
It was signed by Chairman of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR Mikhail Kalinin, Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR Vyacheslav Molotov and Secretary of the Central Committee of the USSR Ivan Akulov. The decree was published in the Izvestia newspaper on April 7, 1935. The content of this decision testified to the most serious tightening of the criminal procedure legislation in the country. So, what was introduced by this decree? Firstly, in paragraph 1 of the Resolution it was emphasized that criminal liability with the application of all measures of criminal punishment (that is, as it seems to be understandable, including capital punishment, but here there will be the most interesting nuance, which we will discuss below), for theft, violence, bodily harm, mutilation, murder and attempted murder, begins from the age of 12. Secondly, it was emphasized that incitement of minors to participate in criminal activities, speculation, prostitution, begging is punishable by imprisonment for at least 5 years in prison.
The clarification to this decision stated that Article 22 of the RSFSR Criminal Code regarding the non-use of the death penalty as the highest measure of social protection to minors was also canceled. Thus, at first glance, the Soviet government seemed to officially allow sentencing minors to capital punishment. This fit quite well into the general vector of toughening of state criminal policy in the mid-1930s. Interestingly, even in the first post-revolutionary years, the death penalty was not applied to underage citizens of the country, although there was a very high level of juvenile delinquency, whole gangs of street children were operating, who did not disdain the most cruel crimes, including murder, causing grievous bodily harm, and rape. However, then no one thought of sentencing even such cruel young criminals to criminal sentences. What happened?
The fact is that until 1935 juvenile criminals could only be sent for re-education. This allowed the most inveterate of them, without fear of such a "mild" punishment, which cannot be called punishment, to commit crimes, being in fact completely safe from punitive measures of justice. An article in the newspaper Pravda, published on April 9, 1935, two days after the decree was published, said exactly this - that juvenile criminals should not feel unpunished. In other words, the decree was of a preventive nature and was aimed at preventing violent crimes involving minors. In addition, not all of the listed articles included the death penalty. Even for the murder of one person, the death penalty was not assumed, if the murder was not associated with banditry, robbery, resistance to the authorities, etc. crimes.
Pyhalov:
“It turns out that the maximum punishment for premeditated murder with aggravated circumstances (Article 136 of the RSFSR Criminal Code) was 10 years in prison (Criminal Code of the RSFSR. . P.70).
- Intentional infliction of grievous bodily harm (Article 142) entailed up to 8 years of imprisonment, and if it caused the death of the victim or was committed in a manner bearing the character of torment or torture - up to 10 years (Ibid. P. 71).
- Rape (Article 153) - up to 5 years, and if the result was the suicide of the victim, or the victim of the crime was a minor, then up to 8 years (Ibid. Pp. 73–74).
- Theft (Article 162) with the maximum bouquet of aggravating circumstances - up to 5 years (Ibid. Pp. 76–77) ”.
One can argue for a long time about whether the death penalty is permissible for minors, who themselves killed several people during robberies. But it is quite possible to understand such a measure, especially in those difficult years. Moreover, in practice, it was practically not used. It was necessary to try very hard to "achieve" the death penalty for himself as a minor. "Overkill" and prisoners of conscience, who, according to quite numerous anti-Soviet authors, were shot almost en masse as a minor. After all, Article 58 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR "Anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda" was not included in the list of articles according to which "all measures of influence" were allowed to minors. It was not listed in the 1935 decree. That is, there were simply no formal grounds for the execution of minors under this article.
The list of those executed at the Butovo training ground includes a large number of citizens of 1920-1921. birth. It is possible that these were the very young men who were shot. But do not forget about the specifics of the time. In 1936-1938. Citizens born in 1918-1920 became adults, i.e. born in the midst of the Civil War. Many of them could either deliberately hide their true data in order to receive less punishment, or simply did not have accurate data about their date of birth. It was often not possible to check the date of birth either, so the "drops" could reach not just a year or two, but several years. Especially when it came to people from deep provinces, from the national outskirts, where with registration and accounting in 1918-1920. there was a huge problem in general.
There is still no documentary evidence of the execution of underage citizens during Stalin's time, with the exception of a very dark and controversial example of the execution of four citizens born in 1921 at the Butovo training ground in 1937 and 1938. But this is a separate story, and with her, too, not everything is so simple. To begin with, these citizens (their names are Alexander Petrakov, Mikhail Tretyakov, Ivan Belokashin and Anatoly Plakushchy) have only a year of birth without exact dates. It is possible that they could have reduced their age. They were convicted of criminal offenses, and already in prison they repeatedly violated the regime of detention, were engaged in anti-Soviet agitation, robbing inmates. However, the name of 13-year-old Misha Shamonin is also mentioned among those shot at the Butovo training ground. Was it really so? After all, the photo of Misha Shamonin is easy to find in many media, but at the same time, having copied the photo from the case, for some reason no one tried to copy the case itself. But in vain. Either doubts about the shooting of a 13-year-old teenager would have been dispelled, or it would have turned out that this was just a deliberate action aimed at influencing public consciousness.
Of course, it is possible that extreme measures against juvenile criminals could be applied outside the legal field, including under the guise of murder while trying to escape, but this is not about individual abuses of authority on the part of police officers, security officers or Vokhrovites, but about law enforcement practice. But she knew only a few cases of teenagers being shot - four cases at the Butovo training ground (and even then causing great doubts) and one more case - already eleven years after the death of I.V. Stalin.
In 1941, the age of criminal responsibility for all crimes other than those listed in the 1935 decree was set at 14 years. Note that in the 1940s, during the harsh wartime, there were no cases of mass executions of convicted minors either. But the Soviet leadership used all possible measures to eradicate child homelessness, to solve the problems of orphans and social orphans, which were more than enough and which represented a completely fruitful environment for the development of juvenile delinquency. To this end, orphanages, boarding schools, Suvorov schools, evening schools developed, Komsomol organizations were actively working - and all this in order to turn minors away from the street and from the criminal way of life.
In 1960, criminal responsibility for all crimes was determined at the age of 16, and only for especially grave crimes was criminal responsibility provided for at the age of 14. Nevertheless, it is with the Khrushchev, and not with the Stalinist period in Russian history that the only documented fact of the death penalty of a juvenile offender is associated. This is the infamous case of Arkady Neiland. The 15-year-old boy was born into a dysfunctional family, at the age of 12 he was assigned to a boarding school, studied poorly there and escaped from the boarding school, was brought to the police for petty hooliganism and theft. On January 27, 1964, Neiland burst into the apartment of 37-year-old Larisa Kupreeva in Leningrad and hacked to death both the woman herself and her three-year-old son Georgy with an ax. Then Neyland photographed the naked corpse of a woman in obscene poses, intending to sell these pictures (pornography in the Soviet Union was rare and highly valued), stole a camera and money, set a fire in the apartment to hide the traces of the crime, and fled. They caught him three days later.
The minor Neiland was very confident that he would not face serious punishment, especially since he did not refuse to cooperate with the investigation. Neiland's crime, his bloodthirstiness and cynicism then outraged the entire Soviet Union. On February 17, 1964, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR published a decree on the possibility of applying, in exceptional cases, the capital punishment - execution - in relation to juvenile criminals. On March 23, 1964, Neiland was sentenced to death and on August 11, 1964, he was shot. This decision provoked numerous protests, including those abroad. However, it is not very clear why the defenders of Neyland were not at all worried about the fate of the young woman and her three-year-old child, who were brutally killed by the criminal. It is doubtful that even an unworthy, but more or less tolerable member of society would have been brought up from such a murderer. It is possible that he could have committed other murders later.
The isolated cases of the death penalty for minors by no means testify to the severity and cruelty of Soviet justice. In comparison with justice in other countries of the world, the Soviet court was indeed one of the most humane. For example, even in the United States, the death penalty for juvenile offenders was abolished only quite recently, in 2002. Until 1988, 13-year-olds were quietly executed in the United States. And this is in the United States, what to say about the states of Asia and Africa. In modern Russia, juvenile criminals often commit the most cruel crimes, but receive very mild punishments for this - according to the law, a minor cannot receive more than 10 years in prison, even if he kills several people. Thus, convicted at the age of 16, he is released at the age of 26, or even earlier.
Ilya Polonsky
The only teenager sentenced to capital punishment in the USSR was 15-year-old Arkady Neiland, who grew up in a dysfunctional family in Leningrad.
Arkady was born in 1949 into a working class family, his mother was a nurse in a hospital, his father worked as a locksmith. From childhood, the boy did not finish eating and suffered beatings from his mother and stepfather. At the age of 7, he ran away from home for the first time, being registered in the children's room of the police. At the age of 12, he ended up in a boarding school, soon escaped from there, after which he took a criminal path.
In 1963 he worked at the Lenpishchmash enterprise. Repeatedly got into the police for theft and hooliganism. Having escaped from custody, he decided to take revenge on the police by committing a terrible crime, and at the same time to get money to go to Sukhumi and start a new life there. On January 27, 1964, armed with an ax, Neiland set out in search of a “rich apartment”. In the house number 3 on Sestroretskaya Street, he chose the 9th apartment, the front door of which was upholstered in leather. Posing as a postal worker, he ended up in the apartment of 37-year-old Larisa Kupreeva, who was here with her 3-year-old son. Neiland closed the front door and began to beat the woman with an ax, turning on the radio at full volume drowned out the screams of the victim. Having dealt with the mother, the teenager killed her son in cold blood.
Then he ate the food found in the apartment, stole money and a camera, with which he took several photos of the murdered woman. To hide the traces of the crime, he set fire to the wooden floor and turned on the gas in the kitchen. However, the firefighters who arrived on time quickly extinguished everything. The police arrived and found the murder weapon and Neiland's prints.
Eyewitnesses said they saw a teenager. On January 30, Arkady Neyland was detained in Sukhumi. He immediately confessed to everything he had done and told how he killed the victims. He only felt sorry for the child he had killed and thought that he would get away with everything because he was still a minor.
On March 23, 1964, by a court decision, Neiland was sentenced to death, which was contrary to the law of the RSFSR, according to which capital punishment was applied only to persons aged 18 to 60 years. Many approved of this decision, but the intelligentsia condemned the violation of the law. Despite various requests for commutation of the sentence, the sentence was carried out on August 11, 1964.
