Editing Iona Nikitchenko (section)

==Nuremberg trials==
Nikitchenko was one of the three main drafters of the London Charter. He was also the Soviet Union's judge at the Nuremberg trials and was president for the session at [[Berlin]]. Nikitchenko's prejudices were evident from the outset. Before the Tribunal had convened, Nikitchenko explained the Soviet perspective of the trials:<blockquote>"We are dealing here with the chief war criminals who have already been convicted and whose conviction has been already announced by both the Moscow and Crimea [Yalta] declarations by the heads of the [Allied] governments.... The whole idea is to secure quick and just punishment for the crime."<ref>[http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/imt/jackson/jack17.htm on 29 June 1945] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041210174640/http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/imt/jackson/jack17.htm |date=10 December 2004 }} (8. Report of Robert Jackson, United States Representative to the [[London Charter of the International Military Tribunal|International Conference on Military Trials, London]], 1945 (Washington, DC: US State Dept., 1949), pp. 104–106, 303.; [[Whitney R. Harris]], Tyranny on Trial: The Evidence at Nuremberg (Dallas: S.M.U. Press, 1954), pp. 16–17.)</ref></blockquote>
[[File:Panel of justices and attorneys Nuremberg Trials 1945.jpeg|thumb|Panel of justices and attorneys at the Nuremberg trials ]]
Nikitchenko dissented against the acquittals of [[Hjalmar Schacht]], [[Franz von Papen]] and [[Hans Fritzsche]]; he also argued for a death sentence for [[Rudolf Hess]], who was ultimately sentenced to life in prison by the tribunal. Nikitchenko said, in the lead-up to the trials, "If... the judge is supposed to be impartial, it would only lead to unnecessary delays."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Grant|first=Thomas|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1140153773|title=Court Number One: the trials and scandals that shocked modern Britain|date=2020|isbn=978-1-4736-5163-0|location=London|oclc=1140153773}}</ref> Nikitchenko also found the majority judgments incorrect with regard to the [[Hitler cabinet|Reich Cabinet]], the [[German General Staff]] and the [[Oberkommando der Wehrmacht]]. Having never before written a dissenting opinion—these being unheard of in Soviet jurisprudence—and being unsure of the form of such an opinion, Nikitchenko was assisted in writing his dissents by his fellow judge [[Norman Birkett]].{{Citation needed|date=April 2023}}

Nikitchenko feared a compromise on too lenient a level. At the point of final deliberation he reexamined Hess' case and voted for a life sentence so that the opportunity for Hess to get away with a lesser degree of punishment did not occur.