"In the process of criminal proceedings, it is the key to not concentrate on the trial." Bian Jianlin, a professor at China University of Political Science and Law, said that the practice of criminal proceedings centered on investigation in the past led to the court's over-reliance on written materials such as investigation records, which greatly reduced the value of court trials in finding out the truth and safeguarding human rights, which was not conducive to effectively punishing crimes and easily led to unjust, false and misjudged cases.
Under the mode of "taking investigation as the center", once the public security organs make mistakes, it is easy to have the phenomenon of "wrong starting point, wrong following and wrong ending". Wei, an associate professor at the Law School of Renmin University of China, believes that "from a series of unjust, false and misjudged cases discovered in recent years, it can be seen that if the principles of division of responsibilities, mutual cooperation and mutual restraint among the three organs play a role, the wrong investigation conclusions will not evolve into effective judgments. It can be seen that many unjust, false and wrong cases are caused by the' failure' of the restrictive role of the trial. "
The "Decision" of the Fourth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee proposed to promote the reform of the trial-centered litigation system and ensure that the factual evidence of the investigation, review and prosecution cases can stand the legal test. "Giving full play to the role of trials, especially trials, is an important link to ensure the quality of handling cases and judicial justice. This reform is conducive to prompting case handlers to enhance their sense of responsibility, realize the substantive justice of case adjudication through the procedural justice of court trials, and effectively prevent the occurrence of unjust, false and wrong cases. "
"Because the trial activities presided over by the people's court have the most complete form of procedural justice, the people's court's understanding and handling of the case is based on the full discussion and rebuttal of evidence and legal opinions by both the prosecution and the defense. "
The "Opinions" issued by the "two high schools and three departments" clearly require that evidence proving the defendant's guilt or innocence, light or heavy crime should be presented in court, and the rights of cross-examination of both the prosecution and the defense should be guaranteed according to law. If there is any dispute between the prosecution and the defense on the evidence of conviction and sentencing, they shall cross-examine it separately. According to the law, the parties and other litigation participants' rights to know, to state, to defend oneself, to apply and to appeal are guaranteed. Safeguard the rights of defenders to meet, read papers, collect evidence, ask questions, cross-examine, debate and defend according to law, and improve the working mechanism to facilitate defenders to participate in litigation.
The results of the reform are also outstanding. According to statistics, in 20 15 years, courts at all levels declared 1039 defendants innocent according to law. "One of the keys to promoting the reform of the trial-centered criminal procedure system is to adhere to the principle of never suspecting a crime. If the defendant is found innocent according to law, he shall be acquitted. If the evidence is insufficient and the defendant cannot be found guilty, he shall be acquitted according to the principle of no doubt. " Li Fenfei said.
Reform should not only achieve judicial justice, but also achieve efficiency.
Although the lawsuit should be trial-centered, the court can never vigorously promote the reform of the criminal procedure system centered on trial. "Without the active participation of investigation organs and procuratorial organs, the court can only fall into the embarrassment that a clever woman can't cook without rice," said Wu Shuo, a professor at China University of Political Science and Law. If the preliminary evidence is not solid, the court will either acquit the defendant because the prosecution's evidence is insufficient and does not meet the standard of guilty evidence, which risks intensifying social contradictions. Either accommodate the prosecution's lack of evidence and risk misjudging the innocent to rashly convict the defendant.
The "Opinions" put forward that to promote the trial-centered reform of the criminal procedure system, it is necessary to make the fact evidence investigation in the court, the conviction and sentencing debate in the court, and the judgment result in the court. This means: in pre-trial activities, investigators and prosecutors must devote more time and energy to finding, collecting and fixing evidence; In the trial stage, with the increase of the participation of both the prosecution and the defense, the trial time will inevitably be lengthened.