Study On Legal Aid System For Criminal Suspects

The legal aid system for criminal suspects in China is an important part of the criminal legal aid system.It originated from the designated defense system of the state.At that time,in order to guarantee the defendant's right to defense,the state stipulated that the court should appoint a defender for defendants who meet the conditions of legal aid.However,due to the national conditions at that time,criminal legal assistance was not implemented at the investigation stage.Since the addition of the clause "the state respects and guarantees human rights" in the 2004 Constitution,the concept of human rights has gained more and more attention in China,and the protection of the human rights of criminal suspects is no exception.China has established a legal aid system for criminal suspects.The Criminal Procedure Code,as amended in 2012,formalized the system of legal aid for criminal suspects and advanced criminal legal aid to the investigation stage.The establishment of this system effectively guarantees the legal rights of criminal suspects in need of legal assistance,such as the right to defense and the right to appeal,and it also effectively curtails illegal investigation methods such as extorting confessions by torture and violent evidence collection that are easily adopted by investigation agencies at the investigation stage.However,due to the late start of China's legal aid system,there is a lack of theoretical and practical experience.As a result,the legal aid system for criminal suspects suffers from a series of problems such as the narrow scope of legal aid in judicial practice,the serious shortage of legal aid funds,the large number of legal aid cases,and the lack of supervision mechanism of legal aid in the investigation stage.These problems are not only not conducive to the investigation of crimes suspected of human legal rights protection,but also not conducive to the improvement of China's social security system.In order to solve the above problems,first of all,we should improve the legal aid system for criminal suspects in legislation,formulate high-level laws,and specify the deployment of legal aid at the investigation stage.Secondly,it is necessary to perfect the system from the judicial practice.It is necessary to expand the scope of legal aid for criminal suspects at the investigation stage,broaden the sources of funding for legal aid,increase the subsidies for lawyers to handle cases,increase the publicity of legal aid at the investigation stage,and facilitate legal aid for criminal suspects at the investigation stage.Thirdly,it is necessary to establish and improve the supervision and administration mechanism for legal aid at the investigation stage,expand the avenues for the redress of criminal suspects 'rights,and provide follow-up guarantees for the legal aid of criminal suspects.Finally,on the basis of improving the legal aid system for criminal suspects in our country,we can learn from foreign experience,such as adopting the "legal clinic education" model of criminal legal aid and the public defender system,which can also play a good role.