Southeast China's Jiangxi Province has recently issued a local
regulation to standardize evidence for death penalty cases
involving intentional homicide. The directive aims at avoiding
incorrect verdicts and misjudged cases.
A regulation to standardize evidence for death penalty cases
involving intentional homicide has been released jointly by the
People's Court, People's Procuratorate and the Public Security
Department of Jiangxi Province. This authoritative document aims at
avoiding incorrect verdicts and misjudged cases; it is the first of
its kind regarding evidence for death penalties involving
deliberate murder. The directive has drawn close attention from the
legal profession and the public.
Based on the regulation, image data is now required as a part of
evidence collection. The document also stipulates that lawyers can
be on the scene when interrogating suspects if necessary and that
all controversial identification should be submitted to the court.
Detectives cannot refuse to bear witness without special reasons.
Different standards of evidence collection will be worked out
according to each individual murder case.
A lot of incorrect verdicts and misjudged cases have been
reported in recent years, insiders said. One important reason for
this is lack of relative regulations. The new official document has
created a unified standard for evidence collection, identification
and utilization, with many unique rules.
(China.org.cn by Yang Xi, January 14, 2008)