On Reasoning Of Criminal Sentencing Verdict

Reasoning of criminal sentencing verdict refers to a major part that a judge accounts for its sentencing conclusions which are revealed in the document.Due to the generality of legal norm,how to rule every case is actually relies on the judge's discretion,and a judge is free to choose a sentencing point within the range of statutory sentencing.The judge's discretion is limited by sentencing reasoning system to some extent,requiring the judge to give the reasonable explanation to the sentencing conclusions that have already been driven during which the verdict is repeatedly reflected and censored and thus comes a possible and objective explanation.As the generalization of adjudication document on the internet,the audiences have increased from the individual to the public.A logic,persuaded adjudication document can review the processes of verdict as well as dispel doubts of the public,therefore,-not only will the legal document be-much easier to be accepted by people but also the judicial credibility will be built.Moreover,as the judge shows his or her thinking process by words,the sentencing procedures will become clearer to guarantee the procedural justice.China is weak in sentencing reasoning document.First of all,people pay less attention to sentencing reasoning but more to conviction when making the judgment document.Second,sentencing reasoning document is too formalized.Conviction and sentencing are not strictly differentiated in the document which just follows the format of 'start,fact section,reason section,judgment section and ending' doesn't have explanation sentencing in details,just show the proof of sentencing.What's worse,the explanation is too generic,not to particular case.Many different written judgments have the same explanation for the circumstance for sentencing.Third,most of the time the explanation are not sufficiently credible and the key points are too ambiguous.Fourth,the judgment document seems just piled together,which is lack of strict legal logic.Fifth,the defense side occupies very little of the judgment document,whose opinions have been neglected too much and will not be explained no matter accept or not.All in all,there are several reasons below for the insufficiency of our sentencing reasoning document.First of all,judges are not willing to explain because of the judicial environment as 'more case less people' and traditional idea as 'focusing more on conviction than sentencing'.Second,judges are afraid to explain because of the idea 'He that talks much errs much',and the intervention of leaders and politics and law committee,as well as the public opinions.Last but not the least,the qualification and job requirement of judges in China are not high.So some judges' expression ability and language proficiency are not qualified enough for them to do the reasoning explanation clearly.In consequence,our sentencing reasoning documents need to be improved urgently.In the second place,sentence reasoning,namely,the content of sentence reasoning should be fundamentally solved based on establishing sentencing principles.As an effective sentencing reasoning,the reasoning for the influence of sentencing reason,sentencing circumstances to sentencing conclusion and for sentencing opinions and suggestions of the accuser and the defender should be included.Sentencing reasoning document for criminal judgment should be standard thoroughly,which can personalize the reasoning based on individual cases combined with parties' characteristics.In order to achieve the split-flow of the complicated and the simple,the reasoning shall be conducted varying from different types of cases according to the details.Last but not the least,the judges' reasoning faculties should be improved.First,awareness needs to be raised for the judges to realize the importance and necessity of sentencing reasoning.Second,professional training shall be often provided for the judges to technically improve their reasoning faculties.Third,sentencing reasoning faculty should be regarded as one of the reference factors to evaluate the judges,which might arouse their self monitoring.Fourth,the selection of judges ought to be strictly controlled so that those who are really capable of can be the judges.