A Research On The Causes Of Wrongful Convictions From The Perspective Of Comparison Between Contemporary China And The United States

The research on the causes of wrongful convictions has become one of the important topics in academic research,In recent years,along with the increase of wrongful convictions in China.The article clarifies the causes of wrongful convictions in China and proposes revelations against wrongful convictions,based on sevaral cases in China and citing situation of exonerations in the United States,in view of an analysis of datas.The causes of wrongful convictions in contemporary China,can be divided into three parts: causes in the factual stage,causes in the law application stage,and external factors of cases.Causes in the factual stage: Identying suspects only according to social contradictory relationships of victims,Intervention in verbal evidence,neglect important material evidence and clues,false or misleading forensic evidence,preconceived ideas,illegal procedures.Causes in the law application stage: the risk of suspicion and public opinion.External factors:judicial official,assessment mechanism and accountability mechanism,and the legacy of Chinese traditional legal culture.The causes of wrongful convictions in the US can be divided into three parts: Causes in the factual stage,causes in the trial stage and external factors of cases.Causes in the factual stage: perjury or false accusations,neglecting or concealing evidence of innocence,false confessions,mistaken eyewitness identification,false or misleading forensic evidence.Causes in the trial stage: weak legal defense,plea bargaining and jailhouse informants,and ineffective judicial procedures.External factors of cases: news reports,racial discrimination.There are commonality and characteristics of the causes of wrongful convictions between China and the United States.The commonality: false verbal evidence,neglecting or concealing importantt evidence,false or misleading forensic evidence,preconceived ideas,and ineffective judicial procedures.The unique causes in China: the method of torture which is based on corporal punishment and forced psychological pressure,Identying suspects only according to social contradictory relationships of victims,The court’s rarely adopting defense opinions and scorning the cross-examination.There are some unique causes in China,which have been overcomed through the existing measures in legislation or judicial practice.Enlightenment of the comparative research on the causes of wrongful convictions between China and the US.First,it is recommended to adhere to equal procedural justice and entity justice allways.Second,to prevent improper intervention of suspect confessions and victim statements,it is recommended to conduct full-length audio and video recordings of all types of case interrogation during the investigation;it is recommended to add the "exclusion of the audio and video recordings which are spliced";Judges take more attentions to the voluntary and reliability of confessions.Third,to prevent false or misleading forensic evidence,ensuring the professional quality and professional ethics of appraisers;it is recommended that forensic analysts and experts accept the cross-examination in court.Fourth,it is recommended to construct a system that the procuratorate should disclose to the defender when it finds evidence in favor of the suspect at the arrest stage.Fifth,it is recommended that the public defend the words to encourage the judge to carefully consider the defense opinions.Sixth.The plea bargaining system is a unique judicial system in the United States.Plea bargaining has become a cause of a part of wrongful convictions in the United States.It should be wary of jailhouse informants,for China.Seventh,jury system in the US is different from our country’s.Currently,the people’s jury system in our country has advantages.In order to improve the people’s jury system,it is recommended to reduce requirements and training.Egihth,it is recommended that Criminal justice system keeps calm and maintains conviction under the pressure of public opinion.