Article 35
The responsibility of a defender is to provide materials and opinions on whether a criminal suspect or defendant is innocent, light or relieved of criminal responsibility according to facts and laws, and to safeguard the litigation rights and other legitimate rights and interests of the criminal suspect or defendant.
Defenders have independent litigation status. This independence is not only relative to prosecutors and courts, but also relative to defendants.
The significance of the defender's existence is, on the one hand, to safeguard the litigation rights of criminal suspects and defendants in litigation activities, and on the other hand, to supervise and balance the so-called overall judicial activities.
The determination of the defender's independent litigation status is to solve a problem: whether to defend or not when the criminal suspect has confessed? Do you want a defender?
If you think that the defender is only the spokesman of the suspect, then defend according to the suspect's wishes. Then, if the suspect pleads guilty, there is no need for defense or defender.
This phenomenon will bring a problem: the judicial organs can force the victims to confess through coercion and inducement, or the victims themselves confess out of fear or despair or even cover up some people.
Therefore, it is necessary to give the defender an independent litigation status, and independently put forward opinions and evidence that the suspect is innocent, the crime is light, and the criminal responsibility is reduced or exempted according to facts and laws.
The above is how to understand the lawyer's right of independent defense in criminal cases.