GENERAL PROVISIONS

CHAPTER IV
STAGES AND FORMS OF A CRIMINAL ACT

Article 27. Repeat Offence

1. Repeat offence shall mean a situation when a person already convicted for the commission of a premeditated crime, where his prior conviction has not expired yet or has not been expunged in accordance with the procedure laid down by laws, repeatedly commits one or several premeditated crimes. Such a person shall be considered a repeat offender.

2. Repeat offence shall be considered dangerous, and the offender may be recognised as a dangerous repeat offender by a court where this person :

1) commits a new grave crime while having an unexpired conviction for the commission of a grave crime ;
2) already being a repeat offender, commits a new grave crime ;
3) already being a repeat offender, where at least one of the crimes constituting a repeat offence is a grave crime, commits a new serious crime ;
4) commits a new serious crime while having three prior convictions for the commission of serious crimes.

3. When passing a judgement of conviction for the most recent crime committed, a court may recognise a person as a dangerous repeat offender having regard to the offender's personality, the extent to which criminal intentions have been accomplished, the nature of participation in the commission of the crimes and other circumstances of the case.

4. When deciding on the recognition of a person as a dangerous repeat offender, a court shall have no regard to prior convictions for the crimes committed by the person before the age of 18 years, the crimes committed through negligence, the crimes for which conviction has expired or has been expunged, also the crimes committed abroad for which no liability is provided under criminal laws of the Republic of Lithuania.

5. The recognition of a person as a dangerous repeat offender shall no longer be valid if his prior convictions expire or are expunged.

GENERAL PROVISIONS

CHAPTER VIII
IMPOSITION OF A PENALTY

Article 56. Imposition of a Penalty upon a Repeat Offender for the Commission of a Premeditated Crime

1. A court shall generally impose a custodial sentence upon a repeat offender for the commission of a premeditated crime.

2. For the commission of a premeditated crime, a dangerous repeat offender shall be imposed a penalty more severe than the average custodial sentence prescribed by the sanction of an article for the committed crime. Another penalty may be imposed upon a dangerous repeat offender only on the grounds provided for in Article 62 of this Code.

GENERAL PROVISIONS

CHAPTER XII
PREVIOUS CONVICTION

Article 97. Previous Conviction

1. The persons convicted of commission of a crime in respect of whom a judgement of conviction passed by a court of the Republic of Lithuania has become effective shall be considered as persons having previous conviction. The court shall take previous conviction into consideration when imposing a penalty for the commission of a new criminal act, deciding the issue of the offender’s release from a penalty or criminal liability, release on parole or replacement of a penalty with a more lenient one, also when identifying the person as a repeat offender.

2. Previous conviction may be a basis for restricting only those rights and freedoms of citizens whose restriction is provided for by laws of the Republic of Lithuania.

3. The following persons shall be considered as having previous conviction :

1) the persons given a suspended sentence – during the period of suspension of the sentence ;
2) the persons convicted of negligent crimes – during the period of serving the sentence ;

3) the persons convicted of premeditated crimes who have actually served the imposed sentence – during the period of serving the sentence and during the following period commencing after they have served the sentence or have been released from serving the sentence :
a) for three years if convicted of a minor or less serious crime ;
b) for five years if convicted of a serious crime ;
c) for eight years if convicted of a grave crime ;
d) for ten years if they are dangerous repeat offenders.

4. The terms of validity of previous conviction following serving of the sentence or release from serving the sentence in respect of the minors convicted of the crimes provided for in subparagraph 3 of paragraph 3 of this Article shall be reduced by half.

5. The terms stipulated in subparagraph 3 of paragraph 3 and in paragraph 4 of this Article shall be calculated from fully serving of the imposed sentence or release from serving the sentence.

6. Upon the expiry of the time limits laid down in this Article, previous conviction shall expire and the persons shall be considered as having no criminal record.

7. After the lapse of a least one half of the term of conviction, a court may, at the request of the convicted person, reduce the term of conviction or expunge the conviction.

8. Where a person who has a previous conviction commits a new crime or misdemeanour, calculation of the term until the expiry of previous conviction shall cease. In such a case, calculation of the term until the expiry of the conviction for the previous criminal act shall commence from the serving of the penalty for the new crime or misdemeanour. The person shall be considered as having previous conviction for each criminal act until the expiry of conviction for the most serious of the acts.