Research On The False Confession Under The Leniency System For Pleading Guilty And Accepting Penalty

In 2016.the leniency system for pleading guilty and accepting penalty kicked off in China.From pilot to popularization,from policy to legislation,the leniency system for pleading guilty and accepting penalty has been constantly improved,but the risks arising from its implementation cannot be ignored,the most typical of which is the increased risk of false confession due to the implicit prosecution and defense negotiation in the system.At the same time,the system is in its infancy,with the institutional mechanism itself not yet sound and risk prevention measures also lacking.Therefore,this article combines academic views,practical cases and foreign experience to propose preventive measures for the risk of false confession under the leniency system for pleading guilty and accepting penalty.The first part is to define and classify the connotation and types of false confession under the leniency system for pleading guilty and accepting penalty,thereby laying a foundation for the discussion of issues related to false confessions in the following article.As for the definition of the connotation of false confession,the focus of academic controversy is whether it should cover the involuntary confession of the guilty person.This article holds a positive attitude towards this,so it defines false confession as the false or involuntary admission of the accused crimes by criminal suspects and defendants.For the classification of the types of false confession,this article takes subjective and objective reasons as the classification standard,and combines the connotation definition of false confession to divide it into three types:voluntary false confession of the innocent people,involuntary false confession of the innocent people,and involuntary false confession of the guilty people.The second part discusses and analyzes the cases and causes of false confessions under the leniency system for pleading guilty and accepting penalty.For the three types of false confession,relevant cases are displayed respectively,and five common causes of false confession are summarized,which are:suspects have cognitive errors,suspects take the blame for others,suspects try to extricate himself as soon as possible,investigation organs practice torture to extract confessions,and investigation organs adopt improper interrogation.The first three belong to subjective reasons,and the last two belong to objective reasons.The third part is the introduction to relevant extraterritorial systems and the summary of experience in preventing false confessions.This part introduces the relevant representative systems of Anglo American law system and continental law system respectively:plea bargaining in the United States and criminal negotiation in Germany.The right to silence,evidence discovery,effective defense and federal sentencing guidelines under the plea bargaining system in the United States;the substantive truth,the duty of investigating of court’s authority,the duty of informing and recording under the German criminal consultation system all have reference to the risk prevention of false confession under the leniency system for pleading guilty and accepting penalty in China.The fourth part,based on the above discussion,proposes measures to prevent the risk of false confession under the leniency system for pleading guilty and accepting penalty.They are:giving the criminal suspect the right to silence;improving the evidence disclosure system from the aspects of disclosure time,disclosure scope and disclosure subject;constructing an effective participation system for lawyers,including giving lawyers the right to be present during interrogation,changing the position of duty lawyers,and establishing invalid defense standards;improving sentencing guidance opinions;By strengthening the substantive review of the court,strengthening the information obligation of the judiciary,and stipulating the recording and disclosure obligation of the judiciary,the supervision and safeguard system is constructed.This article hopes that through the above measures,we can do our best to prevent false confession,so as to promote the healthy and sustainable development of the leniency system for pleading guilty and accepting penalty.