| on october 26,2018,the sixth session of the standing committee of the 13th national people’s congress made the decision on amending the criminal procedure law of the people’s republic of china,formally establishing the system for imposing lenient punishments on those confessing to their crimes and accepting punishments as an important principle and system of criminal proceedings in china.this marks the further institutionalization and systematization of the criminal policy of "combining leniency with rigidity" and lays a solid foundation for the continuous and in-depth advancement of the reform of the trial-centered criminal procedure system in china.the establishment of the system for imposing lenient punishments on those confessing to their crimes and accepting punishments is a major institutional change in the field of criminal justice under the background of comprehensively deepening the reform in china and an important measure to promote the modernization of the criminal procedure system,and meets the essential requirements of promoting the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity.from the practical operation,the implementation of such system plays an obvious role in resolving social contradictions,promoting social harmony,reducing social confrontation,saving judicial resources,etc.,and helps to ensure the organic unity of legal effect,political effect and social effect in the process of handling judicial cases.zhang jun,prosecutor general of the supreme people’s procuratorate,pointed out that procuratorial organs play a leading role in fully implementing the system for imposing lenient punishments on those confessing to their crimes and accepting punishments.under such leading role,whether the sentencing suggestions put forward according to law by procuratorial organs in handling criminal cases by applying the system for imposing lenient punishments on those confessing to their crimes and accepting punishments can be recognized by judicial organs is an extremely important link in the implementation of the system for imposing lenient punishments on those confessing to their crimes and accepting punishments,and is also a test of whether the procuratorial organs can adapt to the modernization of the criminal procedure system.accordingly,it is extremely important to improve the rate of adoption of sentencing suggestions by courts from the perspective of procuratorial organs.the author has carried out investigation and research on the application of the system for imposing lenient punishments on those confessing to their crimes and accepting punishments by procuratorial organs in s province for more than half a year,and selected the procuratorates in a city,b city and c city and their subordinate grass-roots procuratorates（i.e.d procuratorate,e procuratorate and f procuratorate）as the research objects,and sorted out the business data of handling the cases concerning confessing to crimes and acceptance of punishments,related cases and the adoption of procuratorial organs’ sentencing suggestions by courts,and then studied the cases in which the courts failed to adopt sentencing suggestions one by one.according to some practical problems about the application of the system for imposing lenient punishments on those confessing to their crimes and accepting punishments found in the investigation and research and in combination with relevant theories,the author analyzes the reasons that restrict the adoption rate of the sentencing suggestions of procuratorial organs,as described below:（1）the sentencing in the system for imposing lenient punishments on those confessing to their crimes and accepting punishments is not standardized,which is manifested in inadequate sentencing regulations,inadequate sentencing basis,unclear leniency,etc.;（2）the mechanism construction is not in place,such as relatively weak role of on-duty lawyers,relative lagging of the construction of balanced sentencing mechanism,etc.;and（3）the procuratorial organs themselves have restrictive factors.for this reason,from three perspectives,i.e.formulating unified and clear sentencing suggestion standards,perfecting the mechanism construction of the system for imposing lenient punishments on those confessing to their crimes and accepting punishments,and strengthening the procuratorial organs’ own construction,the author puts forward some countermeasures,such as exploring and standardizing the application of non-prosecution discretion,establishing and perfecting the voluntary review mechanism of accused parties,perfecting and guaranteeing the litigation rights of on-duty lawyers,encouraging on-duty lawyers to meet and read case files,and jointly formulating the sentencing suggestion standards on the application of the system for imposing lenient punishments on those confessing to their crimes and accepting punishments by courts and procuratorates,strengthening the mechanism construction of balanced sentencing,enhancing the capacity building of case handlers,and strengthening the collaboration and cooperation among judicial organs,so as to improve the rate of adoption of procuratorial organ’s sentencing suggestions by courts. |
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