Causes And Countermeasures Of Criminal Misjudged Cases

Criminal misjudged cases occur in criminal procedure which is designed to eliminate crimes.However,the criminal procedure itself would also cause misjudged cases,so this is another crime which harm or kill innocent people in the name of law,and with more serious social damage.Such crime not only damages individual interest and wrong the innocent,but also destruct the interest,order and justice of the whole society.The essence of misjudged cases is evidence;on the basis of evidence,incorrect factual determination and application of law are made,and therefore cause destruction to normal legal order through judicial institutions’ wrong decisions.Evidence is the foundation and precondition for determining the facts of a case,and once evidence is misapplied,the whole case will also be wronged.According to 100 serious misjudged cases that the author collect,the reasons for these wrong cases are : judicial institutions do not follow strict due process in collecting,examining and applying the evidence,thereby causing improper factual determination and wrong application of law about whether the defendant is guilty or not.So misjudged cases occurred in this way.It is well-known that everyone desires to have a just and efficient judicial system with clear and correct factual determination and application of law in each case,bringing the guilty to justice and protecting the innocent.In order to do this,we must learn lessons from the past,confront the misjudged cases,analyze their causes and consider the measures to prevent.With the introduction as the beginning,this paper falls into three chapters,analyzing the causes and measures to prevent according to 100 misjudged cases,based on evidence.The first chapter describes the status quo of misjudged cases in China,summarizing their features,categorizing them according tothe following factors: whether there is ill-treatment,accusation,reasons to correct,vacation,geographic location,relation with victims and so on.The second chapter discusses the causes of misjudged cases from the perspective of evidence.These include the the wrong presumption in favor of being guilty in case of doubt,and other reasons relating to evidence,such as defendants’ confession,victims’ statements,testimony,expert opinion,and material evidence.Furthermore,as testimony is based on people’s statements to prove the case,the author will put defendants’ confession,victims’ statements and testimony of witness all into the category of “testimonial evidence”.The wrong investigation of judicial institutions means that Public Security Organ collect evidence in illegal way,such as ill-treatment;and improper application of evidence in the process from investigation to prosecution,for example: fail to examine testimony,victims’ statements,expert opinion and other subjective evidence.They also failed to comply with rule of excluding illegal evidence.All these caused the misjudged cases.The last chapter studies the measures to prevent criminal misjudged cases.The author believes that we may first learn from the experiences of foreign countries.For example,US has passed Innocence Protection Act,and set up a special body to prevent misjudged cases inside procuratorate,together with the help of civilians’ bodies.UK has st up Criminal Cases Review Commission and other NGOs to prevent these cases.Canada has set up the Criminal Conviction Review Group of the Department of Justice and The Association in Defense of the Wrongly Convicted to protect the innocent.Apart from these,we should also find the root cause,go beyond the traditional ideas,adhere to the notion of no punishment in doubtful cases.Improve the rule of evidence,such as the rule of excluding illegal evidence,specify standard of proof,encourage witness to be present at court.We shall then build the wall against misjudges cases,collect evidence in accordance with law strictly,strengthen the the examination of evidence during accusation and trial.The judges should ensure the legality and integrity of evidence,follow the rule of evidence and deal with its conflict appropriately,adhere to the idea of no punishment in doubtful cases,and abandon guilty presumption where there is doubt in it.