An Empirical Research Of The Criminal Witness’ Testimony In Court

Since National People’s Congress adopted the Criminal Procedure Law (2012Amendment) on March14,2012, many new provisions have been made to improve theWitness Testimony in the Amendment, such as mandatory attendance of witnesses, witnessprotection system, etc. However, it is a matter of concern that how the Witness System inpractice runs. In view of this, this paper reflects the operation of Witness System in practice ina way of report and discusses problems unsolved thoroughly for perfecting legislation andimproving the status of witnesses.The20000-words thesis is divided into four parts.The first part concerns the background, methods and research purpose. It has become anorm of criminal justice for a long time that the prosecution read the written testimony of awitness instead of gives evidence by witness in court directly, which undoubtedly deprivedthe defendant’s right to confront effective. Two evidences provide which entre into force onJuly1,2010are comparatively effective in testimony of the witnesses, but scattered amongseveral laws. In2012, an amended Criminal Procedure Law concerning Witness Testimonyenacted many new requirements to allow a witness to go to court. As to the research methods,empirical research has mainly taken to record, analyze and evaluate the current situation ofWitnesses Testimony. Finally comes to research purposes. Based on the description andevaluation of Witness Testimony, analyzing Witness Testimony problems which is reflectedin the implementation of Criminal Procedure Law (2012Amendment) since its enforcementand propose countermeasures to improve the situation of low attendance of witnesses.The second part concerns the Witness Testimony in practice. Firstly, the part screen thesurvey sample; followed by the witness notification in a running part, witnesses primarilyresponsible for the notification by the court so the witness appearance rate is greater than thenotification from prosecution and defense lawyers; thirdly the startup programs ofcompulsory measure for court testifying and evaluation which compulsory attendance ofwitnesses are under court control. The survey sample shows that the compulsory attendanceof witnesses is in marginal effect. In the face of abundant cases, the investigators approach,“speedy trial and quick knot," is still widespread as well as the judge is not willing to arrangethe attendance of witnesses for its time-consuming. Fourthly, this part approaches to legal protection and financial compensation for witnesses through the judge who handling the caseinvestigation areas in interviews to reflect the current status of the protection of witnesses andof the problems that the court is powerless in witness protection considering no correspondingfacilities, no clear witness protection enforcement agencies and no provisions after courtwitness, etc. For witnesses economic compensation, f it is reimbursed in strict accordancewith the law by the courts of the Treasury. Fifth, legal consequences, liability and itsassessment for witness are refusing to testify in court. The Amendment gives the court theright to punish witnesses for its unjustified refusal to testify or refuse to testify in court; theheaviest punishment is only admonition during the investigation, as for the testimony withoutappearance, the judge rules in accordance with past practices by mutual authentication.Sixthly, the legal and social effects of Witnesses Testimony emerged during theimplementation process.The third part approaches to witness problem. First, the law requires the court only tosummon witness, because the number of cases in grass-roots court is numerous while thejudges did not increase. This situation will make the notification a mere formality witnesses,lead mobilization of witness appearance to ineffective. Secondly, the scope of compulsoryattendance of witnesses is decided by the court,“three criteria” principle in CriminalProcedure Law provides no refinement of operational guidelines and will result in the judge’slarge discretion. Third, problems emerged in the witness protection system and economiccompensation. Witness protection enforcement agencies not specified, resulting in unclearresponsibilities, passing the buck among three authorities when fulfilling their obligations,the law only requires that the unit may not require deduction of wages without legalconsequences comes after; finally, legal consequences after witness’s refusing to appear incourt. During the research, the survey sample generally reflected the judges use writtenstatement as usual, and the judge confirms the basis of mutual authentication between theevidence rather than a separate review of written testimony to the authenticity.The fourth part is proposal for perfecting Witness Testimony. This is the key contents ofthe whole thesis. This article confirms that criminal Witness Testimony should be perfectedfrom the following four aspects: first is to make pre-trial testimony transcripts restrictionability-proven strictly on the legislation, i.e. adopt legal provisions to stipulate that writtentestimony may not be as a basis for conviction without court appearance. Followed by anotice to improve aspects of the witness, that is to say, the witness range is about to expand. The prosecution and defense may notify witnesses, the court is only responsible for the formalreview of whether the witnesses is in compliance with legal provisions and inform the rightsand obligations of witnesses. After that, this thesis will discuss the perfection of supportingfacilities for witness protection systems, through combine outside experience with the localpractice, specifying and regulating the extension of witness protection, clarification ofenforcement authorities and establishment of waiver system of criminal witnesses. Finally,civic awareness of the law, so that the witness took to the court not only for theimprovement of the system specification but also from the witness legal literacy. Throughlegal consciousness training, faith in law is born and allows the witness to testify initiatively.