Study On The Illegal Evidence Elimination Rule To Witness Testimony In China

Witness testimony is a form of evidence widely used in criminal proceedings. A common problem with witness testimony is that it might not be objective and factual, especially when the witnesses could have been subject to violence or other forms of threat. This would lead to not only wrongful convictions but also deprivation of the legal rights of the eyewitnesses. It happens particularly in China that, with a low court appearance rate of witnesses and the lack of rules to deal with hearsay evidence, it is often even more difficult to recognize illegal witness testimony than to recognize illegal defendant statement. Therefore there is an urgent need to refine the illegal evidence elimination rule to the witness testimony (referred to below as "the rule") and enhance its practicability to better avoid such kinds of wrongful witness testimony being admissible.In the court case against Chu Mingjian Bribery, the exclusionary rule was applied to examine the legitimacy of the witness testimonies concerned, soon after the legislation and the implementation of the rule in China. This case is considered a typical case study of the subject. To some extent, the case reflects loopholes in the legislation of the rule and its unsatisfactory practicability, and thus deserves in-depth study, in order to seek improvements to the rule.This paper consists of an introduction,a main text and a peroration. The main text consists of the three chapters as follows:The first chapter gives an overview of the concept, including the aspects and the characteristics of legitimate and illegitimate witness testimonies,an introduction of the case Chu Mingjian bribery,and the focal issue.This provides an essential basis for the study of the development of the rule in principle, as discussed in the following chapters.The second chapter is about the case against Chu Mingjian bribery, in which how the rule was applied is analyzed. This case is used as an example to illustrate the issues of the rule which might lead to, in practice, wrongful witness testimony still being admissible in China. In the last chapter, based on the principles in related to the rule and the actual practices in China, what have caused the loopholes in the legislation and the unsatisfactory practicability of the existing rule are analyzed. Recommendations for improvements of the rule in regards of the legislation and the practicability are proposed.