The stage of examination and prosecution is a very important stage in criminal proceedings and also a controversial stage in society. How to standardize and improve the interrogation system in the examination and prosecution, so as to establish a more reasonable and scientific interrogation system, is a hot issue widely discussed in the current legal circles. This paper reflects on the defects of the interrogation system in China's examination and prosecution, and puts forward the idea of reconstructing the scientific interrogation system.
In criminal proceedings in various countries, after the investigation is completed and before the case is submitted for trial, it usually needs to be reviewed by the procuratorial organ or other statutory organs to decide whether to prosecute the defendant. This is a review prosecution. In China, investigation and prosecution activities are separated, and examination and prosecution has become an important link connecting investigation and trial, an independent stage of criminal proceedings, and an important basic work for procuratorial organs to exercise their right to public prosecution. However, in judicial practice, many prosecutors do not have a deep understanding of the functional orientation of the examination, prosecution and interrogation system and its relationship with the interrogation system in the investigation stage, the arrest and interrogation system and the court prosecution and interrogation system, or even they are one-sided and wrong. Strengthening the protection of rights in criminal proceedings also includes strengthening the protection of the rights of criminal suspects, and reviewing the interrogation system in prosecution is of great significance for protecting the rights of criminal suspects. Therefore, it is very necessary to accurately locate the interrogation system in the examination and prosecution.
Reflections on the interrogation system in the current examination and prosecution
In judicial practice, procuratorial organs at all levels have formulated a series of regulations on interrogation system in examination and prosecution, which have played an important role, but there are also some problems.
(a) the interrogation content is simple and repetitive, and the attitude is rude. That is, simply repeating the interrogation content in the investigation stage, or even simply thinking that there is no need to listen to the criminal suspect's excuse and copy the criminal suspect's confession in the investigation stage; Ignoring the confession of the criminal suspect which is different from the investigation stage, it is not accepted at all, which makes the interrogation system in the examination and prosecution useless. What's more, the criminal suspect is required to make a guilty confession according to the confession at the investigation stage. Once you hear a confession that is different from the investigation stage, it is often rudely reprimanded, intimidated or stopped, resulting in the criminal suspect's excuse being ignored.
(2) Correcting illegal phenomena in investigation activities is superficial. In other words, insufficient attention has been paid to the illegal phenomena discovered by the investigation organs. For illegal interrogation phenomena such as extorting confessions by torture and single-person interrogation, some prosecutors only ask the investigation organs to conduct self-examination and make work instructions. For the question of single interrogation, simply ask the investigator to sign the record, and then violate the rule of "excluding illegal verbal evidence" and still accept the interrogation record made by illegal interrogation as evidence.
(3) The right to inform is a form to safeguard the right of nothingness. Some prosecutors just put the written materials informing the rights directly in front of the criminal suspect, without any explanation, but only urge the other party to sign, regardless of whether the criminal suspect understands the contents of the written materials. In most cases, although there is a simple explanation on the written notification materials, the criminal suspect often can't really understand some legal terms due to the limitation of knowledge, thus making the right notification link a mere formality and making the criminal suspect lose the opportunity to safeguard his legal rights because he doesn't know the litigation rights. Some prosecutors ignore the rights applications put forward by criminal suspects during interrogation, such as the right to apply for legal aid, the right to apply for bail pending trial, the right to refuse to answer irrelevant questions, and the right to sue for infringement. Some prosecutors turned a deaf ear to the requirements of criminal suspects to realize the above rights, and only recorded them or did not record them at all, which made the criminal suspects unable to realize the above rights at the stage of examination and prosecution.
(four) publicity and education work is illegal and invalid. When doing educational work in interrogation, some prosecutors often use intimidation or deception, such as intimidating criminal suspects to increase punishment, or inducing criminal suspects to plead guilty with lighter punishment. Although the suspect finally makes a guilty confession, the confession is often unstable or untrue, which actually increases the litigation risk of prosecutors and has a negative impact on the interrogation system. At the same time, some prosecutors never do education and probation work during interrogation, nor do they do the same work for any criminal suspect, so they cannot play the role of education and probation.
Reconstruct the scientific and reasonable system of examination, prosecution and interrogation
In view of the shortcomings of the interrogation system in the stage of criminal procedure review and prosecution in China, it is undoubtedly the historical mission of the theoretical and practical circles of criminal procedure to construct a scientific and reasonable interrogation system in the stage of review and prosecution. The author believes that the construction of a scientific and reasonable interrogation system is mainly to give the interrogation system an accurate functional orientation.
(A) the function of investigation and supervision
"For the benefit of law and the need of justice, prosecutors must seek objectivity.
Facts, not just to "oppose" the defendant. From this point of view, the public prosecutor not only has the obligation to accuse a crime, but also has the "objective obligation" to safeguard legal interests and justice. At the same time, according to the relevant provisions of the Constitution and the Criminal Procedure Law of our country, the procuratorial organ bears the responsibility of legal supervision, and the public prosecutor bears the responsibility of investigation supervision and trial supervision according to law. Therefore, the interrogation system in the examination and prosecution should have the function of investigation and supervision.
The functions of investigation and supervision should have two aspects:
The first is the procedural supervision in the process of investigation activities. That is, fully listen to the confession and excuse of the criminal suspect, check whether the compulsory measures taken by the investigation organ are appropriate, whether there are illegal phenomena such as illegal detention, extended detention, illegal interrogation, and extorting confessions by torture, and whether the items involved are seized or returned according to law, so as to avoid the investigation activities infringing on the legal litigation rights of the criminal suspect and ensure that the litigation rights infringed by the parties in the investigation activities are relieved.
The second is the substantive supervision of the results of investigation activities. That is to say, it is necessary to check whether the criminal facts identified in the Opinions on Transfer for Prosecution are accurate, confirm whether the identity of the criminal suspect is clear, confirm whether there is a crime or omission, and confirm whether the criminal suspect has legal, discretionary, mitigated or even exempted circumstances, so as to avoid the occurrence of unjust, false and wrong cases.
(B) the right protection function
The first is the right to know. Inform and explain that the suspect is being interrogated.
The rights and obligations in the stage of investigation and prosecution make the criminal suspect know about the right to get the help of a lawyer, the right to apply for legal aid, the right to apply for withdrawal, the right to use the spoken and written language of one's own nationality for litigation, the right to apply for bail pending trial, the right to refuse to answer questions irrelevant to the case, the right to request the cancellation of compulsory measures, the right to apply for supplementary appraisal or re-appraisal, the right to appeal against the decision of non-prosecution made by the people's procuratorate, the right to check the transcripts, the right to sue infringement, the right to obtain compensation, and so on. In addition, in the process of interrogation, the criminal suspect should also be informed of the time limit for examination and prosecution, so as to ensure that the criminal suspect will not be illegally detained during the examination and prosecution stage and can get a fair and open trial opportunity in time.
The second is to safeguard rights. Through interrogation, know in time whether the criminal suspect has the requirements of hiring a lawyer, applying for withdrawal, prosecution and appeal, and handle it accordingly to safeguard his legal rights; Through timely interrogation, inform the criminal suspect of the charges and the name of the prosecutor, guarantee the criminal suspect's right to know and realize his right to defense.
Education and probation functions
The purpose of punishment in our country is to combine prevention with punishment. Therefore, in the whole process of criminal proceedings, whether it is the investigation organ, the prosecution organ or the judicial organ, it is the responsibility to educate criminal suspects to abide by the law in time, so that criminal suspects can realize the seriousness, compulsion and authority of criminal law and state prosecution in criminal proceedings, foresee the legal consequences of their actions being investigated and be psychologically shocked, so as to achieve the purpose of special prevention. From this point of view, the establishment of interrogation system in the examination and prosecution will help to play the educational and probation functions of criminal proceedings.
First, in the interrogation, the prosecutor educates the criminal suspect according to the facts of the case, so that he can realize the social harm caused by criminal acts, shock the punishment result, plead guilty in time and improve the efficiency of litigation. Grasping the ideological trends of criminal suspects in time and taking targeted measures can achieve good education and litigation results.
Second, at the end of the interrogation, according to the criminal suspect's ideological trends, confession content, according to the criminal facts and circumstances of the case, the criminal suspect was given legal publicity to consolidate the educational achievements in the interrogation.
Third, the criminal suspects who refused to cooperate or pleaded not guilty in the interrogation should be given legal publicity and education after the interrogation and before the trial, so as to make them think, thus turning the case around and achieving good litigation results.
Building a harmonious society under Scientific Outlook on Development's strategic thought. As a link of social life, criminal proceedings also need to adhere to the principle of "people-oriented", coordinate the interests of all parties in criminal proceedings, and make criminal proceedings run in a fair environment. The interrogation system in the examination and prosecution is the central link to ensure the benign operation of the examination and prosecution activities in a fair environment. It connects the case file, case evidence, opinions of the parties and investigation and litigation activities, laying a good foundation for the next step to review whether to prosecute or not. Therefore, the scientific orientation of interrogation system in the examination and prosecution is of great significance for determining the success or failure of the examination and prosecution, and for influencing the whole process and result of criminal proceedings.