Research On The Regulation Of Sentencing Suggestion Power In The Cases Of Admission Of Guilty And Acceptance Of Punishment

In the cases of admission of guilty and acceptance of punishment,the implementation of sentencing suggestion by procuratorial organs is of great significance for standardizing the sentencing discretion of judges,protecting the litigation rights of the accused and improving the lawsuit efficiency of criminal cases.However,looking back at the reform practice of the system of leniency on admission of guilty and acceptance of punishment,the enforcement of sentencing suggestion virtually expands the power of the procuratorial organs,and the procuratorial organs essentially become the "Unilateral decision maker" of sentencing suggestion as well as the "Ultimate decider" of criminal penalty.Therefore,how to reasonably regulate the sentencing suggestion power of the procuratorial organs in the cases of admission of guilty and acceptance of punishment is the key issue to be discussed.In general,we should explore the basic way of regulating the sentencing suggestion power of the procuratorial organs in the cases of admission of guilty and acceptance of punishment from the perspective of norm and practice,entity and procedure.This will lay a foundation for the procuratorial organs to play their leading role in the application of the system of leniency on admission of guilty and acceptance of punishment and for the normative realization of the "cornerstone" function of sentencing suggestion in promoting the procuratorial organs to play their leading role.On a normative level,under the reform background of our criminal procedural model from "interrogation" to "confrontation" and then to "cooperation",the way of putting forward sentencing suggestion becomes more accurate,the expression form of sentencing suggestion becomes more formal,and the application effect of sentencing suggestion becomes more substantial.The changes of the standard connotation of sentencing suggestion in the cases of admission of guilty and acceptance of punishment reflect the development trend of procuratorial organs' sentencing suggestion power from "nothing" to "being" and from "weak" to "strong",and it is easy to incur the risk of abuse of the procuratorial organs' power in practice.Therefore,it is necessary to regulate the procuratorial organs'sentencing suggestion power from two dimensions of entity and procedure,so as to promote the fair making of sentencing suggestion in the cases of admission of guilty and acceptance of punishment,protect the legitimate interest of the accused,and consolidate the reform achievements of "trial-centered".On a practical level,the rational construction of substantive standards and procedural rules of sentencing suggestion in the cases of admission of guilty and acceptance of punishment are the two fulcrums to promote the standard exercise of procuratorial organs' sentencing suggestion power.Specifically,one of the important dimensions of the rational construction of substantive standards of sentencing suggestion in the cases of admission of guilty and acceptance of punishment lies in the correct understanding of the applicable basis of sentencing suggestion in the cases of admission of guilty and acceptance of punishment.As the applicable basis of sentencing suggestion in the cases of admission of guilty and acceptance of punishment,"admission of guilty and acceptance of punishment" is an independent sentencing circumstance which is different from the existing sentencing circumstances."Admission of guilty and acceptance of punishment" as an independent sentencing circumstance has a solid legal basis,theoretical basis and effect basis.The common constitutive element between "admission of guilty and acceptance of punishment" sentencing circumstance and "voluntary surrender" and"confession" sentencing circumstances is "truly confessing one's main criminal fact".However,they are quite different in directing object,objective aspect,subjective aspect and application stage,and there is a cross relation between the two types of sentencing circumstances.Procuratorial organs should follow the spirit of "principle of overall evaluation" and "principle of prohibition repeatable evaluation",and make clear the steps of reasonable evaluation of "admission of guilty and acceptance of punishment" sentencing circumstance.Another important dimension of the rational construction of substantive standards of sentencing suggestion in the cases of admission of guilty and acceptance of punishment lies in the reasonable definition of the leniency limit of sentencing suggestion in the cases of admission of guilty and acceptance of punishment.The"maximum limit" of the leniency of sentencing suggestion is the basis and core of the leniency.Through case study,"Contractive leniency" and "Expansive leniency" are two types of the "maximum limit" of the leniency in the sentencing suggestion of admission of guilty and acceptance of punishment cases.Influenced by the concept of retributionism,"Contractive leniency" advocates simplifying the circumstances of sentencing leniency,compressing the scope of sentencing leniency and restricting the rigidity of sentencing leniency,which results in the weak application of the sentencing suggestion system of admission of guilty and acceptance of punishment cases.Influenced by the concept of utilitarianism,"Expansive leniency" advocates expanding the circumstances of sentencing leniency,enhancing the scope of sentencing leniency and strengthening the rigidity of sentencing leniency,which leads to the injustice of the sentencing suggestion of admission of guilty and acceptance of punishment cases.From the perspective of the balanced application of the sentencing suggestion,the "maximum limit" of leniency in the sentencing suggestion of admission of guilty and acceptance of punishment cases should have the substantive connotation of the crossover of sentencing circumstances,the normalization of sentencing range and the semi-rigid validity of sentencing.One of the important dimensions of the rational establishment of procedural rules of sentencing suggestion in the cases of admission of guilty and acceptance of punishment lies in the reasonable construction of the negotiation mechanism of sentencing suggestion in the cases of admission of guilty and acceptance of punishment.To establish a negotiation mechanism of sentencing suggestion in the cases of admission of guilty and acceptance of punishment is not only a powerful response to the "cooperation" litigation mode,but also an objective need to ensure the voluntary,authenticity and legality of admission of guilty and acceptance of punishment.Through practice research,influenced by the value of "Eff-iciency first",the lack of negotiation mechanism of sentencing suggestion in the cases of admission of guilty and acceptance of punishment is widespread.The "Unilateral decision"sentencing suggestion formation mechanism,which takes "the strong leadership of the procuratorial organs" and "the passive participation of the respondent" as the essential core,is easy to shake the legitimacy foundation of the system of leniency on admission of guilty and acceptance of punishment.Therefore,we should take "rights protection" and "new procedural justice" as the basic standpoint to construct the"Equal dialogue" sentencing suggestion negotiation mechanism,and the reasonable construction of this mechanism includes "rights determination","information balance","capacity parity","dialogue equality" and "leniency to fulfill" five major points.Another important dimensions of the rational establishment of procedural rules of sentencing suggestion in the cases of admission of guilty and acceptance of punishment lies in the normative construction of the review mechanism of sentencing suggestion in the cases of admission of guilty and acceptance of punishment.At the trial stage,strengthening the court's review of sentencing suggestion for the cases of admission of guilty and acceptance of punishment will consolidate the reform achievements of "trial-centered".However,from the perspective of trial practice,the people's court has some practical problems such as improper review of the first-instance procedure and weak review of the second-instance procedure.The review mechanism of sentencing suggestion in the cases of admission of guilty and acceptance of punishment is in a state of vacancy.Many institutional factors in the system reform,as well as the fundamental factors such as "Investigation centralism"and "Result centralism",are the main reasons for the absence of the review mechanism of sentencing suggestion.Therefore,we should construct the review mechanism of sentencing suggestion in the cases of admission of guilty and acceptance of punishment under the guidance of the two concepts of“Trial centralism" and "Process centralism".For the first-instance procedure in the cases of admission of guilty and acceptance of punishment,it is necessary to clarify the examination standard of sentencing suggestion,clarify the examination procedure of sentencing suggestion,and improve the reasoning mechanism of sentencing judgement.For the second-instance procedure in the cases of admission of guilty and acceptance of punishment,we should implement the limited right of appeal and guarantee the diversification of hearing methods.