On The Protection Of Defendants’ Rights In Criminal Online Trials

With the rapid development of 5G technology,artificial intelligence,blockchain and other emerging technologies,the judicial field has been subject to drastic impact and change.The deep integration of modern science and technology and court work makes the construction of smart courts not only an inevitable trend in the development of the people’s judicial career,but also represents the new expectations and requirements of the people for court construction in the new era.Online litigation including online trial is an inevitable trend of judicial informatization,and the use and promotion of criminal online trial has also been accelerated by the emergence of the new crown epidemic.The Notice on Strengthening and Regulating Online Litigation during the Prevention and Control of the New Crown Pneumonia Epidemic and the Rules of the People’s Court on Online Litigation issued by the Supreme People’s Court back and forth provide procedural guidance for the smooth operation of online litigation and fill the institutional gap of online litigation.Online trial as a "screen" court hearing,the trial staff,prosecutors and defendants to participate in simultaneous off-site court hearings,to meet the needs of epidemic prevention and control,to promote the timely hearing of cases.Compared with traditional courtroom trial,online trial has the characteristics of virtual,linear,convenient and reliance on information technology,its advantages are mainly reflected in the improvement of trial efficiency,saving judicial resources and to ensure the safety of the case at the same time to promote the smooth trial.As a new form of trial,online criminal trial has achieved good results in judicial practice,but there are tensions and conflicts with traditional criminal litigation jurisprudence and technical systems.While online criminal trials bring convenience to criminal proceedings,they also bring the following adverse effects to the protection of defendants’ rights: the defendant’s right to be present is difficult to be presented equivalently,the defendant’s right to procedural choice is vitiated,the defendant’s right to counsel is adversely affected,the effect of the realization of the right to cross-examination is affected,and the defendant’s personal information is excessively collected and used.In order to fully guarantee the rights of defendants,we should first restrict the application of online trial for complex cases and implement the guarantee of defendants’ procedural options.To ensure the effective realization of the defendant’s right to defense,consider including online criminal trials in the scope of mandatory legal aid,enhancing the defense’s ability to obtain and analyze evidence,and enriching the connotation of the right to read the file so that the defense can better provide legal assistance to the defendant.At the same time,we will improve the standard of online cross-examination,classify different evidence,and effectively protect the defendant’s right to cross-examination,so that it will not be diminished by the change of trial format.Focus on the protection of the rights and interests of the defendant’s personal information,to protect the legitimate use of personal information,to prevent the leakage of personal information at the same time,should also provide the defendant with the necessary means of redress,while establishing a set of perfect technical standards for online criminal trials,to ensure the sound development of intelligent justice on the track of the rule of law.