Arguments To The Use Of Defendant Character Evidence In Criminal Trial

Character evidence rule is a rule which originated in Anglo-American evidence law.In Anglo-American criminal trial,this rule plays a decisive role in avoiding the unfair prejudice from the jury and improving the accuracy of judgment.As one of the most remarkable aspect of this rule,the legal connotation of the defendant character evidence rule is broad and profound.The defendant character evidence is used to prove the character or character features of the defendant and to deduce the person’s behavior or behavior possibility in each stage of criminal procedure.According to its content,it can be divided into the good character evidence and the bad character evidence.Although there is no specific provision in the criminal procedure law in China,the defendant character evidence is widely used in the practice of the investigation,prosecution,trial and execution procedure.On the one hand is the "ignore" in the legislation,on the other hand is the "widely used" in practice,legislation is out of line with the practice.This condition not only makes the defendant character evidence into a no"birthright" awkward situation,but also directly leads to the randomness and chaos when it is used in judicial practice.To solve this problem,the author intends to draw lessons from the overseas advanced experience,and puts forward a series of legislative ideas and reform suggestions on the basis of China’s specific conditions.In addition to the introduction and epilogue,this article is divided into four parts.Full-text consists of more than thirty thousand words.The first part of this article emphatically analyzes the basic theory of the defendant character evidence,the author expatiates on the concept of "character" "character evidence" "the defendant character evidence".On this basis,the author analyzes the pros and cons of using the defendant character evidence in criminal procedure,and points out that if the defendant character evidence can be used scientifically,it can help the judicial personnel determine the defendant’s personal risk,at the same time it can help the judicial organs identify the criminal facts and provides some references for the related judicial decision.In the second part,the author introduces the use of the defendant character evidence in criminal procedure in foreign countries.To explore the differences between Anglo-American legal system and continental legal system in using the defendant character evidence,the author divides the criminal procedure into four parts:investigation,prosecution,trial and execution.From the four aspects,the author introduces the overseas advanced experience,the purpose is to absorb its reasonable composition for building China’s defendant character evidence rule.The third part of this article emphatically investigates the use of the defendant character evidence in China’s criminal legislation and judicial practice and points out that due to the lack of legislative support,the situation of the defendant character evidence investigation is arbitrary,this kind of situation not only makes it difficult to guarantee the comprehensiveness and objectivity of the evidence,but also makes the use of evidence lack of standardization.The fourth part is the most important part of this article.In view of the present situation and problems,the author carries on the bold build.First of all,the author analyzes the necessity and feasibility of establishing the defendant character evidence rule in China,then discusses the base of the rule in detail,that is enacting laws to clear the status,at the same time establishing a system to survey the character of the defendant.At last,according to the four stages of the criminal procedure,building the specific rules respectively.The author also points out that in order to ensure the scientific use of the defendant character evidence,we shall establish the corresponding procedural sanctions,so that the using of the defendant character evidence can be near a good target,and the author could make some contributions to make China’s criminal judicial procedure more scientific.