Practice Of China’s Acquittals

Criminal judgments can be divided into two kinds, acquittal and guilty. Acquittal, whichis our subject here, is the kind of judgments made on the condition that the jury and judgescannot convict a defendant is guilty according to their free evaluation of the evidence aftercourt trial. Because of the deficiencies in China’s judicial system, acquittal judgments areseldom in use, which restricts criminal justice’s function of correction and innocent-protecting.In view of this, there are four chapters in the paper related to issues around the acquittaljudgments in order to improve the related legislation. The content of each chapter stated asbellow:Preface,“General introduction on acquittals”, introduces the basic theory of acquittalthrough three aspects, i.e. its definition, variety, and function. Firstly, this essay definite theconception of acquittals, that is, a kind of substantive judgments which are made when thecourt finds the standard of proof by which the defendant will be convicted guilty hasn’t beenreached, or under the conditions when the law provides the defendant should be acquitted.Secondly, as to the varieties of acquittals, after discussing the works of Chinese scholars andtheoretical analysis abroad, the author suggests criminal verdicts can only be sub-divided intothose of guilty and of not guilty, i.e., acquittals, and the latter should not be made furtherdivision such as acquittals with inadequate proof and those with adequate proof, for such asub-division may bring harm to the principle of “prohibition of double jeopardy” ininternational criminal justice. We should treat all the acquittals as the same, conferring themthe same authority of res judicata in order to protect the basic rights of the accused. Again,from analyzing the function of acquittal, it is outlined on the function of correction andsecurity.The second chapter,“practice of China’s acquittals”, respectively outlined from themacro and micro perspectives. From the macro perspectives, China’s current number andproportion of acquittal were kept at a low level in the range of history and world by the wayof historical and international comparative analysis about open justice statistics.But it isimpossible to disevaluate of protecting the innocent function in Chinese criminal justice,Only from the number of analysist. Secondly, Through the analysis of parts of Prosecution systemand Court system’s datas,especially the recent typical cases, judicial datas and practicesuggest us that criminal justice in protecting the innocent and correcting errors play limitedjudicial function,and contrary to the requirements of guidelines with the modern criminaljustice.The third chapter is the interpretation of acquittal practice from system in the aspect ofsystem. By economics’ s analysis about the role of system and combining China’s judicialpractice acquittal, the thesis summarized a number of systems about constraining criminaljustice to protect the innocent,which are divided into formal and informal systems. In theformal system, the author pointed out the following systems which are shown from thejudicial practice of acquittal: the prosecutor’s technical process through withdrawing theprosecution; the existing function relationship between prosecutor and court;law review orappellate remand in the judicial system and accountability of wrong cases in the criminaljudicial system. In the informal system, the author pointed out consulting systems betweenlower courts and higher courts on difficult cases, the prosecution’s system that murder casesmust be dealt with, the alienated digital evaluation system by judicical organizations,andpower interving system relying on public opinions.The above informal systems seriouslyoffset procedure justice function about guaranting freedom,and act as stealth procedureimpacting acquittal practice.The fourth chapter is to improve the system of acquittal practice. In order to play therole of criminal justice to protect the innocent, this section puts forward the followingmeasures to optimize our current acquittal practice：the reformation of judicial system, thecoordination of judicial mechanism, the improvation of the judicial evaluation system, and theabsorption or abolition of the informal systems. In conclusion, acquittal systems can trulyrealize the value of criminal justice and protecting the innocent，thus narrow the gap betweenthe norms of international criminal justice, and then achieve the modernization and humanityof China’s criminal judicial system.