On Criminal Evidence

Defective evidence is a type of evidence that largely exists in judicial practice while the confirmation of its qualification imposes great influence on specific cases. Incomplete legal norms, imperfect investigations and faulty restriction mechanism.etc are all causes of the growth of defective evidence. Defective evidence owns the characteristics of slight procedural illegality and belongs to a category of ‘not legal' evidence. It differs from illegal evidence. But the relevant legal norms in defining defective evidence is not clear-cut while the scope and features induction are ambiguous. The confirmation of defective evidence's legal effect is the product of the conflict and balance that the entity truth value and the due process of law explore in judicial practice. Although it differs within different jurisdictions, certain space of adjustment has been given in their applications. The current legal norms in China adopt the remediable exclusionary rule with the remedy involving remedial rule and reasonable explanation, but for specific methods of operation clear requirements and limitations are still in lack. The construction and application of defective evidence should apply a prudent attitude in order to avoid the abuse of discretion.The current criminal defective evidence system in China is still quite rough with the confusion in practical application, due to the lack in areas of the concept definition, remedial limitations, review procedures, the restriction mechanism and so on, a lot of improvement still needs to be made.