The Study On Wrongful Conviction And Criminal Procedure

In recent years, a number of significant wrongful convictions have been uncovered in China, and thus caused strong social repercussions. Frequent occurrence of significant wrongful convictions may seriously damage the impartiality and the authority of the judiciary, and reduce the credibility of the judicial organs as well. In the long run, people will lose faith in the law, and ultimately affect the social justice and harmony of good implementation. How to curb the incidence of wrongful convictions is a Chinese-foreign joint concern. There are number of ways to define the concept of the wrongful conviction. From the perspective of the words meaning, wrongful convictions should include two basic types: One is based on the wrongful convictions resulting from the wrong case, ruled that the innocent guilty or sentenced for the severe crime of those committed lightly, and vice versa; The other is based on erroneous free, ruled that the guilty innocent. The above types are all cases of criminal proceedings on account of erroneous judgments of the referee. Nevertheless, this thesis mainly discussed the first type of wrong case which is based on wrongful convictions. The above-mentioned demarcation is relatively clear to the research scope and focus, and includes a variety of recognized types of wrongful convictions as much as possible for the public. This thesis consists of three parts as the introduction, the body, of which the text is of six chapters, and the conclusion. It researched from the viewing angle of criminal investigation procedure, followed the train of thoughts as philosophy - system - method, proceeded with the idea of investigation procedure, proposed to curb the incidence of wrongful convictions by analyzing the bias in both the investigation procedure and the operation of investigation system, and proposed feasible strategies as well as reform measures.The first part is the prologue. This thesis develops around three issues: First, the background; Second, the significance of research; Third, the research method. The occurrence of wrongful convictions is an inevitable product of criminal justice activities. This thesis regarded the above objective understanding as the basic point, aimed to explore new ideas actively on the foundation of existing researches. The research took the criminal investigation stage as the point of penetration, analyzed the causes of wrongful convictions in the aspect of the concept, the system and the method, and then explored the appropriate measures to curb them. All the studies were conducted in the hope of contributing to China’s Criminal Procedure theoretical study, the upcoming legislative amendment of the Criminal Procedural Law and the criminal investigation practice. Relevant research methods include logic analysis, comparative analysis, empirical research methods, document analysis, comparative study, interview and investigation, case analysis, use of interdisciplinary methods, and so on.The first chapter outlines the wrongful conviction and the investigation procedure. This chapter defines the extent of the wrongful conviction in determining the research scope in the first place. Then, on the basis of a representative selection of twenty wrongful convictions, chapter one makes a general analysis of China’s current situation concerning the wrongful convictions, sums up the wrongful convictions with characteristics, and locks the investigation stage, selects the investigation stage as the starting point for analyzing the causes of wrongful convictions. For the sake of research needs, necessary descriptions and analyses have been made towards the status quo in the operation of the investigation procedure in criminal proceedings. This chapter then analyzes the relationship between the investigation procedure and the wrongful conviction on the foundation of the above two aspects.The second chapter outlines the wrongful conviction and the investigative program deviation. Viewing from the relationship between the investigation procedure and the wrongful conviction, the occurrence of wrongful convictions illustrates that neither the value of the investigation procedure nor the purpose of its operation have been well achieved, and therefore indicates that there exist deviations in the investigation procedure. The investigative program deviation consists of three aspects, namely, concept deviation of the investigation procedure, system deviation of the investigation procedure and operation deviation of the investigation procedure. The above-mentioned three deviations have negative effects on uncovering the case facts respectively, and eventually result in the occurrence of wrongful convictions. The composition force of these three deviations leads to the fail of achieving the proper purpose and value of the investigation procedure.The third chapter outlines the concept deviation of the investigation procedure and the wrongful conviction. As an upper concept, the concept of investigation procedure includes the purpose, the value, the goal, the tenet, the spirit, the ideal and other abstract content of the investigation procedure. When the concept of investigation procedure fails to reflect the goal, the value or other needs of investigation procedure, the concept deviation of the investigation procedure then arise. The concept deviation of the investigation procedure is expressed through the philosophy content held by both the legislator and the law-executor. The investigation procedure concept bias of the legislator is reflected in the deviation between the specific system design, the law interpretation of the investigation procedure and the achievement of its purpose and value. Yet, the investigation procedure concept bias of the law-executor is revealed through the departure from the value of the investigation procedure while implementing investigative activities, or their misunderstandings of investigative procedures and other forms. Whether to the legislator or to the law-executor, the investigation procedure concept bias in their brains will undoubtedly affect revealing the case facts, and have a negative "promote" effect on the occurrence of the wrongful conviction.The forth chapter outlines the system bias of the investigation procedure and the wrongful conviction. Complete and independent investigation procedure regulations consist of substantive regulations and executive regulations. Once there are institutional biases in the investigation procedure, they will be reflected through the above two kinds of regulations. This chapter tries to explain the system bias of the investigation procedure and the possible negative effects on criminal proceedings via the performance of investigation procedure regulations. And exactly, the occurrence of wrongful conviction happens to be a consequential performance of the negative effect. The thesis based on the above theories and then made further analyses and discussions towards the causes lying in the system bias of the investigation procedure.The fifth chapter outlines the operation deviation of the investigation procedure and the wrongful convictions. Any legal system begins with a design of rational expressions and is full of expectation. However, the operation of the system is filled with irrational factors as well. Investigation procedure means to regulate people’s behaviors, and intends to provide a standard for the behavior. Reasonable investigation procedure should not only base on the assumption of human rational knowledge, but also recognize that the experience of individuals or groups of rational cognitive ability is limited due to historical conditions and subjective conditions. Ignoring the historic and the subjective restrictions of rational understanding, the rational activity itself may fall into contradiction or antinomy. That means the irrational factors result in the deviation of investigation procedure, in other words, the operation bias of the investigation procedure. This chapter focused on the relationship between the operation deviation of the investigation procedure and the occurrence of the wrongful conviction on the basis of defining the former concept, and then make further analyses concerning the existence of the operation bias in investigation procedure so as to curb the happen of the wrongful conviction.The sixth chapter indicates to reduce the investigative program deviation and to curb the wrongful convictions. After having illustrated the relationship between the wrongful conviction and the concept deviation, the system deviation and the operation deviztion of the investigation procedure as well as having identified the causes, the thesis then proposed various methods of reducing the investigative program deviation. And at the same time, in allusion to the common cause of our country’s wrongful convictions, that is extort confessions by coercion and torture, the thesis also raised the suggestion of establishing a legal system with preventive measures of torture and coercion and relevant supporting measures to reform.The last part of this dissertation is the concluding remarks. The occurrence of the wrongful conviction cannot be eliminated thoroughly; it can only be controlled by number. The existence of the wrongful conviction is the consequence of human knowledge limitations and many other subjective and objective factors. Although it cannot be eradicated, this does not mean we can do nothing about it. In order to curb the occurrence of the wrongful conviction, we should decrease the investigative program deviation as much as possible in the investigation stage, gradually reform the investigation procedure, and reduce the miscarriage in favor of the objective and subjective factors.