Study On The Leniency Entity And Procedural System Of Guilty Plea In China

On July 22,2016,the Pilot Program on the System of Leniency for those who Admit Guilt and Accept Punishment?hereinafter referred to as the“Pilot Program”?was approved by the leading group for comprehensive deepening of reform in its 26^th meeting.The plea leniency system is a critical criminal justice system,which strengthens the judicial protection of human rights through the implementation of the criminal policy of justice tempered with mercy,and enhances the justice and efficiency of justice by optimizing the allocation of judicial resources.It also contributes to maintaining social stability through timely and effective punishment of crime.In recent years,China's judicial organs are faced with the profound inconsistency between personnel and cases,huge judicial pressure,as well as the contradiction between adhering to fairness and justice and improve the judicial efficiency.In 2015,the national prosecution authorities filed a total of 1391225 people,up by5%compared with the last year.Also in 2015,Public Procurator's Office of Nanchang Qingshanhu District accepted the prosecution of 700 cases,up by 65%.China's rapid economic development,accelerated population movements,and the various contradictions stimulated by the social transformation increase the incidences of criminal offenses,leading to a surge in criminal cases.In view of the existing criminal justice system,such as summary procedures,criminal reconciliation procedures,as well as the different types of special personal assignment system have indeed played a specified role to improve the efficiency of justice in terms of case diversion.But most are just a blind pursuit of time,which cannot fundamentally solve the judicial pressure of"many cases but fewer staffs",and is detrimental to the trail-centered judicial reform.At present,there already exist many procedures related to admitting guilt in China's existing criminal justice system,such as non-prosecution for criminal reconciliation cases,non-prosecution for minor crimes under conditions,summary procedures,and the rapid handling of minor criminal cases?hereinafter referred to as"minor case rapid handling"procedure?that is strongly promoted in recent years.These procedures,on the one hand,really improve judicial efficiency by dividing the simple and complicated cases,but on the other hand,more cumbersome procedures and complex paper work than ordinary criminal cases are deliberately established in case of favoritism and other illegal phenomena,making the investigators difficult to start the process of handling cases.On the contrary,it is the ordinary criminal case procedure that is simpler,leading the system to an embarrassing situation of"simple complexity".The wave of judicial reform swept the whole country.The experimental units of plea leniency system have been established in 18 areas in full swing.A complete set of plea leniency system is the requirement for judicial reform,and an important issue to promote the law-based governance.On the subject of the effect of the plea leniency system in the experimental areas,and with the author's experience in handling the relevant criminal cases in the past two years,the author summarizes and analyzes from two perspectives of entities and procedures.The perfection of the plea leniency system should include the following aspects:first,in terms of the substantial system,we should clarify the scope of application,actively promote the conditions of application,and establish the legal aid and on duty lawyers system,so as to mobilize the initiative of the entities with power;secondly,the extent of voluntary review and negotiation should be improved,in order to ensure that the prosecuted person is aware of its rights and obligations;again,we should perfect the certification system,and actively carry out the witness review mode;and finally,a reasonable attention should be paid for the demand of the victims to protect the victims'right to express their sentencing views timely.And in terms of procedural system,first of all,we need to speed up the establishment of the supporting mechanism of quick judging process,which should be different from the existing criminal justice procedures;second,we should promote the effective connection between the pre-trial procedures and quick judging procedures,and strictly taken into custody the necessary reviews;again,the procedure justness and efficiency should be balanced,and the justice first principle should be established;and finally,the procuratorial organs need to complete the sentencing recommendations,regulate the judicial behavior,and improve the technical level in the process of handling cases.