1. Under what circumstances can I appoint a defense lawyer?
It is conditional for the people's court to appoint a defender for the defendant in a criminal case. According to the relevant regulations, the people's court shall appoint a defender for the defendant who has not entrusted a defender in any of the following circumstances:
1. People who are blind, deaf, dumb or have limited capacity.
2. Minors under the age of 18 at the time of hearing.
3. People who may be sentenced to death.
In any of the following cases, the people's court may appoint a defender for the defendant:
1. conforms to the economic hardship standard stipulated by the local government;
2. I really have no financial resources, and my family's economic situation cannot be ascertained;
3. I really have no financial resources, and my family members are still unwilling to bear the expenses of defense lawyers after repeated persuasion;
4 * * * In the same criminal case, other defendants have entrusted defense;
5. Have foreign nationality;
6. Cases with significant social impact;
7. The people's court believes that the procuratorial opinions and the obtained case evidence materials may affect the correct conviction and sentencing.
2. What behaviors should defenders not engage in?
According to the regulations, defense lawyers and other acts that may not hinder the normal conduct of judicial activities mainly include the following:
1. Do not help criminal suspects and defendants to conceal, destroy, forge evidence or collude with each other. The evidence mentioned here refers to the material evidence, documentary evidence, witness testimony, victim's statement, statements and excuses of criminal suspects and defendants, expert conclusions, transcripts of inquests and inspections, audio-visual materials, etc. In addition, these evidences should also be evidence related to the case, that is, evidence that proves whether the suspect or defendant is guilty, whether the crime is serious or not, and whether the crime is minor. The law prohibits helping criminal suspects and defendants to conceal, destroy or forge evidence. As for the purpose and motivation of defenders to help criminal suspects and defendants conceal, destroy and forge evidence, some are for vanity to show their defense ability, some may collude with criminals to seek certain benefits, and so on. Collusion in criminal proceedings mainly refers to the behavior of criminal suspects and defendants in order to fabricate false facts or hide criminal evidence to escape the investigation of judicial organs, or to form an offensive and defensive alliance with each other and unify their caliber to deal with judicial organs. Defenders' assistance to criminal suspects and defendants in collusion is obviously a serious violation of legal duties and undermines judicial organs' investigation of criminal activities, which should be prohibited.
2. Do not threaten or induce witnesses to change their testimony or commit perjury. Witness testimony is an important type of evidence in criminal proceedings. Whether the witness can objectively reflect what he knows is very important to prove the facts of the case, which requires that the witness's testimony must be based on facts, not personal likes and dislikes and speculations, consistent and not contradictory. In some cases, the testimony of witnesses may be inconsistent or contradictory because of unclear memory. It is normal for some witnesses to make some changes or amendments to their previous testimony after testifying. However, the law does not allow to change the original true testimony by knowing that it is untrue or deliberately fabricating false content. It is necessary for the criminal procedure law to prohibit defenders from using threats and lures to make witnesses change their original testimony. It should be noted here that only deliberately changing the original testimony that conforms to the facts with false content belongs to this situation stipulated by law. If the changed testimony conforms to the facts, it means that there is something wrong with the original testimony, which does not belong to the situation stipulated by law.
3 other acts that interfere with the litigation activities of judicial organs. In addition to the above-mentioned two kinds of behaviors that interfere with the litigation activities of the judicial organs, defenders may also have other situations that interfere with the litigation activities of the judicial organs, such as disturbing the court during the trial of a case, seriously disturbing the court order, and using illegal methods to investigate and collect evidence, all of which are behaviors that defenders are not allowed to conduct.
Defenders appointed by the people's courts are applicable to all stages of trial, including first instance and retrial. Under certain circumstances stipulated by law, if the defendant does not entrust a defender himself, in order to safeguard the defendant's legitimate rights and interests, the people's court appoints a defender to appear in court to defend him.