The harm of extorting a confession by torture is serious. First, extorting confessions by torture often leads to some people being beaten into confessions, resulting in unjust, false and wrong cases and conniving at real criminals. Second, extorting a confession by torture has seriously violated the body of the parties concerned and damaged the personal dignity of the suspects and defendants. Third, extorting confessions by torture directly violates the judicial principle of taking facts as the basis and taking law as the criterion. Fourth, extorting confessions by torture will lead to the abuse of the rights in the hands of judicial personnel and the law enforcement power entrusted to them by the people, which will seriously damage the image and authority of judicial organs. Fifth, extorting a confession by torture is easy to wronged the innocent, thus increasing the error cost of the case and reducing the efficiency and benefit of criminal proceedings. Sixth, the loss of state financial funds caused by compensation after the unjust, false and misjudged cases.
There are many unjust, false and misjudged cases caused by extorting confessions by torture. For example, in the case of She Xianglin, he was sentenced to death on suspicion of killing his wife, and was later sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment 15 years by the court for intentional homicide. 1 1 years later, the sudden appearance of "dead wife" Zhang Zaiyu revealed the truth of the unjust case. After the release, the reporter interviewed She Xianglin: "You didn't kill your wife, why did you admit it yourself?" She replied, "I won't sleep for eleven days!" " It's better to be alive than dead. "For example, du's case. 1998, both his wives were killed while trysting with others. Du Wupei was listed as the number one suspect. " I was beaten, physically punished and tortured to get a confession. "He was beaten and confessed, and was sentenced to death with a two-year suspension. Fortunately, the real murderer was arrested. In July 2000, Du cleared his grievances and regained his freedom. The case of Li Zhuang, which happened not long ago, has attracted wide attention from the national media, netizens and legal circles, with the focus on extorting confessions by torture. It can be said that the problem of extorting confessions by torture has come to an end.
At present, the level of science and technology and the legal environment have met the conditions to solve the problem of extorting confessions by torture. The following measures are proposed for decision makers' reference:
The first measure is to reform the proof system of "who advocates who gives evidence" and implement the inverted proof system in cases of extorting confessions by torture. Most criminal suspects and defendants are under the control of judicial organs when they are tried by investigation organs. It is difficult for criminal suspects and defendants to provide evidence except for their own injuries. The evidence inversion system is implemented, that is, as long as the criminal suspect or defendant proposes to be tortured to extract a confession, the investigation organ must prove that the confession was not tortured to extract a confession, otherwise it is tortured to extract a confession.
The second measure is to separate the custody right of criminal suspects and defendants from the public security organs. At present, detention centers all over the country are subordinate to public security organs and shoulder the task of criminal investigation. "Your own knife can't cut your own handle", so it is appropriate to separate the custody right to another state organ. According to the actual situation in China, it is feasible to separate the detention center from the county-level judicial bureau.
The third measure is to monitor the whole interrogation process by video. Through electronic monitoring equipment, the whole interrogation process is monitored. In case of emergency or special circumstances (such as power failure), the trial can be conducted in the presence of lawyers, security guards or CPPCC members invited by grassroots people's congresses.
The fourth measure is to establish a strict interrogation system. No intimidation, temptation, etc. During the trial, sleep deprivation, suspension of eating and drinking, strong light irradiation, etc. It should be a confession by torture. Each (daily) probation period shall be specified, and the probation period within 24 hours shall not exceed 12 hours.