Research On The Trial And Supervision Of Death Penalty Cases In The Song Dynasty

The trial procedure of death penalty in Song Dynasty is an important part of criminal procedure.On the basis of laws,the death penalty cases recorded in the historical materials,the paper aims to find out the basic content of the trial procedure and its pratical effects.The criminal law of Song Dynasty basically inherited Tang Dynasty's.But Song Dynasty increased the charge of death penalty in the forms of Chi or Ling in different time.The legislation was strict in order to fight against the serious crimes.It's meaningful to do a research on how to contradict strengthening the rule and cracking down on crimes in procedure.Besides,with the improvement of the evidence and inspection system,it's of great significance to study the development of the death penalty cases in Song Dynasty.In terms of the basic procedure of the death penalty cases,it involves the first trial procedure,the appeal procedure and the special procedure.The judicial organs at the county levels constituted the first trial of death penalty cases.As a criminal case occurred,the judicial organ at the county level could accept the complaint as soon as possible.Then it would send the results of the investigation and the offenders to the state for a fomial trial.In the trial process of state judicial organs,the chief was required to hear the case,Wu Ting was still commonly used.But the evidence were much more stringent.Some cases must be tested if it involved lives.In order to obtain prison term,torture was widely used in practice.After hearing the case and finding out the facts about crime,Jianfaguan would search all relative laws to give a verdition,other officials would disscuss the appropriacy of the verdiction and the senior officer would made the final decision.If the facts were clear,it could be sentenced to death directly.Secondly,in order to protect the relief of the criminal,they could choose to appeal to the Lu or the central judicial level after the trial finished.In terms of the trial method,the higher level could choose to vedict itself or send to the state and county for a trial.The result should be sent to the central judicial level and chose officials nearby the Lu to give a verdiction.Finally,if the county met some difficult cases,they must submit them to the higher level organs for a trial.In different periods,because of the number of death sentences and the reported doubtful cases,the provisions on case reporting changed.At the same time,due to the changes in institutional settings,especially after the reform of YuanFeng,the trial process of death penalty cases in the central government also changed,it could be divided into two different stages.In order to strengthen the supervision of states and counties in the trial of death penalty cases,a strict supervision system had been formed from the local to the central government.For the state judicial organs,it's mainly depended on the internal supervision.After the trial of the facts,Luwen inheriented Wudai would start,different officilas would be sent to re-interrogate major criminals.Any errors found in every stage from law inspection to judgment determination could be investigated again.At the Lu level and the central government,it mainly carried out in the form of external supervision.TiXing in Lu level carried out the regular supervision.The central institutions like Yushitai,Zhongshumenxia would participate in the supervision of the judgment of the doubtful cases reported from the state or county.Superior judicial organs inspected regularly,reviewed the report of prisoners from the lower's to find out if the case was out of date.At the same time,they can re-hear the appeal case to find out the wrong circumstances,investigate the responsibility of illegal officials and promote the effective operation of the death penalty trial procedures.In the trial of the case,the trial and the judgment were separated from each other,which prevented the wrong judgment because of the excessive power of one party.Strict requirements on evidence and inspection were conducive to distinguishing the facts of the case.It's helpful to improve the discretion of the trial of death penalty cases.The formation of a strict supervision system from the local level to the central government had played an important role in standardizing the operation of procedures,reducing the number of officials breaking the law and correcting wrongful convictions.Besides,it should be noted that the establishment and supervision of the death penalty trial procedures were too strict,which affects the efficiency of the trial of cases.In order to meet the requirements of "empty prison",local judicial officials quickly made a verdiction.The procedures were formalistic.State judicial organs were endowed with great jurisdiction to adjudicate cases.It helps to slove some clear cases,it provided conditions for officials to bend the law to adjudicate cases to a certain extent.Different understanding of legal texts between different regions also resulted in inconsistency in the application of laws.