On The Procedural Promoting Functions Of Admitting One’s Guilt

According to the current criminal justice practice, cases with guilty plea occupythe majority. While there are quite a few legal provisions of guilty plea, they haveslight differences, moreover, a large number of practice issues remain to be dealt with.Conception, functions of guilty plea can not be found in the code, which leads to thelack of unity and system in guilty plea cases. Therefore, this article starts with theconception and extension of guilty plea, then divides it into several levels andanalyzes the functions of each level. After that, the article discusses the influences inpractice that prevent guilty plea from functioning, also puts forward the accordingsolutions. It will be my honor if the research can provide some ideas for the judicialpractice to know more about guilty plea and handle the cases with less difficulty.This article includes introduction and the main body. The main body containsfour parts, amounts to thirty thousand words.The first part discusses the conception and level of guilty plea. On the basis oflegal provisions and the existing result of theoretical research, guilty plea is that theadmitting of criminal suspects or the defendants about the alleged or accused criminalfacts, which include the constitutive requirement, the illegality and liability. Thesubject of guilty plea contains both criminal suspects and defendants. The content ofguilty plea is the alleged or accused criminal facts, besides, the dissent of “accusation”and “measurement of penalty” makes no difference to the plea of guilty. Then, thearticle divides the guilty plea into four levels, according to the content. The plea oflowest level demands partial admitting about the criminal facts, while the second leveldemands the whole. The third level demands the admitting of illegality besides thewhole criminal facts and the highest level demands the additional admitting ofliability.The second part starts with the level of guilty plea, and analyzes the proceduralpromoting functions of each level. The lowest level can provide some clues of the case, cause the implementation of investigation act, and promote the adoption orchanging of coercive measures. The second level can promote the conclusion ofinvestigation, make the prosecutors handle the case with quick procedure and makethe non-prosecutorial decision. Besides, it can also promote the application ofsummary procedure and influence the trial mode of second instance. The third levelcan mainly push forward the criminal mediation procedure, and the highest level playa part in the private prosecution cases.The third part analyzes the factors that prevent guilty plea from functioning inthe judicial practice. The factors can be divided as three aspects. Flaws of legislationcome first, including the vague definition of guilty plea, disunity of the judgingstandards, the lack of the guarantee about voluntary and truth of guilty plea, and thelack of independent plea bargaining procedure. Secondly, the law enforcementofficers’ idea needs to be improved. This includes valuing the substance instead of theprocedure, valuing the form instead of the essence, valuing the court time instead ofthe outside. At last, there are some shortages in the case handling mechanism. Thismainly includes the lack of consolidation of guilty plea, interrogation system and thequick dealing system. The aspects of legislation and mechanism may also restrict theenforcement of the law, which can hardly be totally overcame before amending thelaw. Moreover, the obstacles about the officers’ idea have been formed during thelong practice of the law enforcement, which can not be conquered in a short period.Thus, guilty plea plays a little role in the practice.The forth part comes up with some improvement measures according to theproblems. Firstly, as the new criminal procedure law has been newly promulgated, it’simpossible to amend it in the near future. We can overcome the flaws by finding someprovisions which can benefit the function of guilty plea, and fully implementing them.Besides, we can set out some rules for the implementation. Provisions in the criminalprocedure law such as attorneys’ association, legal aid and inform procedures are notwell enforced in the practice, which affect the function of guilty plea. As a result, wecan promote the function by enforcing the provisions well. And it may work bysetting out some implementing rules in a restricted area, uniting the different standards of guilty plea. According to the mechanism problem, we should set theremedy to the case. For example, we can build the guilty plea consolidation system,interrogation system and the quick handling system. As to the ideal aspect, theenforcement officers should recognize the substance of the guilty plea cases, value theout-of-court function of guilty plea and change the old ideas gradually.