Study On The Improvement Of The System Of The Investigators To Appear In Court

It is of great value to have investigators in court in criminal procedure.The establishment of the system of the investigators to appear in court in China has experienced a long-term exploration,both in theory and in practice.In accordance with the Provisions on Several Issues concerning the Examination and Judgment of Evidence in Death Penalty Cases,the Provisions on Several Issues concerning the Exclusion of Illegal Evidence in Criminal Cases,and the revised Criminal Procedure Law of People’s Republic of China,our country has established the system of the investigators to appear in court.In the present system,investigators should enter in to appearance under the following three circumstances,first,to explain the legitimacy of evidence;second,to testify as witness for conviction;and third,to testify as witness for sentencing.Although the system of the investigators to appear in court has been established,there still exist some problems,such as the ambiguity of investigators’ proper role in court,the rough procedures,the lack of established provisions on investigators’ duties and their institutional guarantee.It results in the unsatisfactory feedback in practice of the system.On the one hand,the proportion of the investigators to appear in court in all criminal cases has yet to reach a reasonable level;on the other hand,the implementation of the system is usually in the name of judicial reform or procurator work innovation which lack unified standards.In that sense,improving the current system of the investigators to appear in court is of practical necessity.There’re mainly four barriers in the way of the development of the system of investigators to appear in court.First,there are value conflicts between two main purposes of the criminal litigation,of which one is to punish the crime and the other is to protect the human rights.Second,the principle of directness and verbalism,which functions as the legal basis of the system of investigators to appear in court,is still missing in the current law.Third,the ‘streamlined method’ of the criminal procedure structure is to some extent against the running of the system.Fourth,the pervasive sense of special privilege among investigators,the tradition of ‘substantiality overweighing process’,and the fear of investigators to appear before court all become impediments to the system.To better the system of investigators to appear in court,the author proposed four solutions.In the first place,we should give the investigators clear identities in different situations.Regarding to the conviction of the truth or the fact of sentencing,the investigators appear in court as witness to testify;when it comes to the legitimacy of evidence,the investigators appear in court as investigator to explain.Moreover,specific rules should be set on this ground.Thirdly the investigators who refuse to appear in court should undertake corresponding adverse consequences.But they should not be responsible for the exclusion of the evidence with regard to ‘legitimacy of evidence’,and their testimony in court could not be used as the direct evidence to prove investigators’ crime.Lastly the institutional guarantee of investigators to appear in court should also be prescribed.In order to achieve good implementation of the system of investigators to appear in court,the principle of directness and verbalism should be introduced into criminal procedure law,the judicial reform should go further and the trial centered lawsuit system should be established.