Research On The Proofs Of Criminal Obligatory Medical Cases

Obligatory medical procedure is added to the newly revised criminal procedure law of 2012. It is aimed at the mental patients that not bear criminal responsibility. But proofs of forced medical procedures are not clearly defined in relevant law and judicial interpretations. That proof problems include: The object of proof in criminal obligatory medical cases is not clear; the allocation of responsibilities is not clear enough in three different situations of prosecutor applying obligatory medical treatment, the judge starting obligatory medical treatment according to his authority and defense applying obligatory medical treatment; there is no explicit provision in the standard of proof, proof procedure and the method of proof in law. The unclear legal provisions may easily lead to formalization of criminal court procedure in obligatory medical cases and the legitimate rights and interests of mental patients involved in these cases cannot be protected. Therefore, it is necessary to discuss the proofs of the obligatory medical cases in order to meet the needs of the judicial practice.Except for Introduction, there are totally 30, 000 words in this paper, which are divided into four parts:Part I is object of proof in obligatory medical treatment. Legal object of proof in obligatory medical treatment include essential parts like if there is corpus-delicti, if is a mental case, if has criminal capacity, if is possible to continue to harm society, if is necessary to take obligatory medical treatment. However, in juridical practice, because of different experience and knowledge of judges and the different understanding on connotation and nature of object of proof, investigating and prosecuting apparatus always only prove if object is a mental patient, but not provide evidences to fully prove if object is possible to continue to harm society or if there is the need to take obligatory medical treatment. Therefore, in juridical practice, we need to further clarify connotation and nature of object, definite the understanding and application of object of proof in criminal obligatory medical treatment case, and mutual relationship.Part II is responsibility of proof in obligatory medical treatment case. There is no legal provision in Criminal Procedure Law to specially stipulate burden of proof in obligatory medical treatment. The suitable object and object of proof in criminal obligatory medical treatment are special. For difference between complexities for defendants to acquire evidences, the distribution of evidential burden should also be different, but not be stipulated by general rules in Criminal Procedure Law uniformly. According to “orthophrenia principle” and “interest equilibrium principle”, distribution of evidential burden in obligatory medical treatment should be different. With the principle of investigating and prosecuting apparatus bearing burden of proof and exception of applicants, burden of proof shall be reasonably distributed between accuser and defender.Part III is the standards of proof in obligatory medical treatment case. As to objects in obligatory medical treatment, different objects of proof own different proving complexities and importance. Evidences of behavior elements and subject elements are easy to collect, and can reach a high proving standard during proving process. Harmful and essential elements, which are limited by current scientific and technological standard, are hard to reach a high level. Same proving standards are easy to cause mismatching of legal provisions and juridical practice. Therefore, out of the maximum rights protection of applicants, different proving standards are needed for different objects of proof. Behavior elements and subject elements adapt to “standards which exclude reasonable doubt, social hazard adopts “clear and specify proving standards”, and essential elements adopt “proving standards with reasonable basis”. Meanwhile, different proving standards should be adopted according to different object of proof burden.Part IV is the proving progress and proving method of obligatory medical treatment case. Criminal proving progress is the key to ensure smooth development of court trial, generally including proving procedure, cross-examination procedure, and rules of evidence. Being different with general criminal cases, criminal obligatory medical treatment cases are special. We need to further refine proving procedure of obligatory medical treatment cases to make it with more operability. It is proposed that it should focus on the cross examination procedure taking "appraisal opinion" and "social survey" report as the core, meanwhile specify that the involved mental patients appearing in court as the principle, not to appear as an exception and the identification must appear in court. Build a perfect proof procedure.Different proof methods apply to different proof objects. It should establish strict proof method for major support and free proof method for supplement...