Misjudged Cases And Their Preventive Measures From The View Of Investigation

In recent years, with criminal misjudged cases such as the cases of Du Peiwu and SheXianglin being revealed and reported, and with the public paying more and more attention onthese cases, criminal misjudged cases have become a heavy subject in the social lives ofChina. It is reasonable to ask questions such as why these cases frequently happen in modernChina, why they are misjudged, and how to prevent their occurrences? In fact, since theexistence of judicial civilization, misjudged cases have been like haunting devils and havebecome a persistent pain in the judiciary. The prevention of criminal cases is not a judicialaspiration that can be fulfilled within a very short period. Moreover, the structure of criminalproceedings in contemporary China is still “investigation-centered”. It is prescribed inCriminal Procedural Act of China that when carrying out criminal procedures the publicsecurity organs, the procuratorial organs and the people’s courts shall divide work forrespective responsibilities, work in coordination, as well as check and balance each other toensure the effective enforcement of law. Consequently, China has established a flow processmodel of case filing, investigation, examination before prosecution, trail and execution wherethe investigation organs (generally refer to the public security offices) are always at thefrontier of eradicating and punishing crimes followed by the procuratorate and the people’scourts. Hence it can be seen that due to the “investigation-centered” proceeding constructionmodel in China, criminal cases always rest with investigation offices, and the destinies ofcriminal suspects or defendants are also in the hand of investigation offices rather thanpeople’s courts. As a result, if the power of investigation goes like a runaway horse out ofcontrol, then it is perfectly normal that some cases are misjudged. In view of the abovementioned this article mainly researches on criminal misjudged cases through the view ofinvestigation in four sections, analyzes the causes of the occurrences of criminal misjudgedcases during the phase of investigation, and afterward proposes preventive strategies withregard to misjudged cases occurring in the phase of investigation.The first section: general descriptions of criminal misjudged cases. This section consistsof three parts: firstly the concept of criminal misjudged cases happened in the phase ofinvestigation that is the cases whose merits are mistaken or where laws are mistakenly usedduring the process of investigation; secondly the characteristics of criminal misjudged cases which largely include that those criminal misjudged cases are products of the judicial notionof “presumption of guilt”, that they are the consequences of substantive and procedural errorsespecially of the latter, that the damage caused by them are severe, and that their exposurechannels are relatively few; thirdly the types of criminal misjudged cases which mostlycontain cases of substantive errors, of procedural errors and of both substantive andprocedural errors.The second section: the current situations of criminal misjudged cases from home andabroad. This section examines the current situations of criminal misjudged cases happenedduring the phase of investigation in China and of those happened in foreign countries todemonstrate the extensiveness of criminal misjudged cases and to build solid foundation forfurther examinations concerning criminal misjudged cases through the comparison ofsituations in China and abroad.The third section: the causes for criminal misjudged cases happened during the phase ofinvestigation. Through the comparison of current situations of criminal misjudged casescombined with concrete practice in China, this section generalizes the causes for theoccurrence of criminal misjudged cases which reflects in the imperfection of criminal systemof China, the deficiency of laws and regulations, the mediocre qualities of investigators as awhole, the influence of judicial environment and the insufficiency of investigation hardwarefacilities.The last section: preventive strategies regarding criminal misjudged cases happenedduring the phase of investigation which can be divided into two directions: to start with thispart introduces effective strategies adopted by foreign countries for exposure and preventionof criminal misjudged cases, such as projects of research associations of the United States,criminal investigations in Canada, Criminal Cases Review Commission of Britain, andInnocent in Prison Project of Germany; secondly based on researches from home andabroad in relation to the prevention of criminal misjudged cases, this part emphasizes onconstructing a preventive system of criminal misjudged cases in the phase of investigation inChina, perfecting investigation systems such as the systems of evidence, of defense and otherrelated systems in the phase of investigation, perfecting both substantive and procedural rulesand regulations in the phase of investigation, enhancing qualities of investigators such as theirlegal concepts and investigation skills, improving the judicial environment, and alsoadvancing hardware facilities of investigation offices such as increasing case-handling budgets, equipping investigators and etc.