Research On The Legal Aid System For Death Penalty Review Procedures

The introduction of the Legal Aid Law in 2021 is another major leap in the development of criminal legal aid,which is not only the first special legal document officially promulgated by the national legislature since the establishment of China’s legal aid system,but also an important legal basis for improving legal aid in the death penalty review process and laying an important foundation for the full coverage of legal aid.The right to defense plays an important role in the death penalty review process,however,many defendants are unable to entrust professional lawyers to provide defense due to their low education level,weak legal awareness,lack of legal expertise and poor economic status,which seriously affects the quality of death penalty review results.As the death penalty involves the right to be sick,it is a matter of life and death,so it is more important to get the help of lawyers.For those who do not appoint defense lawyers for special reasons,the state should provide them with legal aid and effective high-quality defense to protect their legitimate rights and interests and try to avoid the occurrence of wrongful cases.This paper carries out the problem study through literature analysis method,comparative analysis method,and normative analysis method.Divided into four parts,the first part defines legal aid legal aid for death penalty review procedures,mainly elaborating the concept and characteristics of death penalty review procedures,followed by introducing the theoretical basis of legal aid for death penalty review procedures.The second part introduces the problems of low threshold of assistance lawyers for effective defense,insufficient litigation rights of legal aid lawyers,unclear provisions of legal aid for the victim’s side and the lack of procedural consequences of violating legal aid.The third part examines four aspects,namely,the mandatory designation of lawyers for defense in death penalty cases in the United States,the high qualification of defense lawyers for admission to death penalty cases in the United States,the right of victims to legal aid in death penalty cases in Japan,and the strengthening of the right to defense by state-elected defense in death penalty cases in Japan,and draws inspiration from them for the improvement of legal aid for death penalty review procedures in China.The fourth part puts forward suggestions for improving the legal aid system for death penalty review procedures in China,mainly including four aspects of raising the threshold of legal aid defense lawyers for death penalty review procedures,clarifying that the victim side of death penalty review procedures has the right to legal aid lawyers to help and clearly stipulating the legal consequences of violating legal aid procedures.