"Right Of Repentance" Of The Accused Pleading Guilty And Accepting Punishment In The Leniency Procedure

The leniency system for the accused who plead guilty and accept punishment is a consultative system subject to confessions made by the accused.The accused party waives their defense for innocence and the complete procedural protection in exchange for substantive lenient punishment.Therefore,the leniency system.provides the accused pleading guilty and accepting punishment with rather weak procedural protection.In addition,as the inquisitorial system has long been adopted in the criminal procedure in China,the accused are apparently in a vulnerable position when facing public authority of the state in the leniency procedure.Protecting the right of repentance of the accused is of great significance as it’s the reverse protection of the accused party’s voluntariness of pleading guilty and accepting punishment.Essentially,the right of repentance of the accused in the leniency procedure for pleading guilty and accepting punishment in China is the right of defense for the accused,an exclusive and fundamental litigation right of the accused.The ’establishment of the right of repentance reflects the litigator status of the accused,and is in line with basic requirements of the principles of procedural legality,procedural participation,and presumption of innocence,and thus is very important in relevant judicial practice.However,the right of repentance hasn’t been clarified in Chinese laws;such problems as a lack of legal basis and heavier punishment after repentance exist in judicial practice.Moreover,the academia is still divided over the system itself and problems of the implementation of the system.To establish the right of repentance of the accused in the leniency system for pleading guilty and accepting punishment in China,the types of repentance should be classified first;second,reasonable limitations should be set on the right of repentance;third,the consequences of exercising the right of repentance should be clarified;lastly,the supporting systems of the leniency procedure should be perfected.Only by the above measures can the rate of repentance by the accused be fundamentally reduced in the leniency system for pleading guilty and accepting punishment.