1. Will ordinary lawyers suggest a guilty plea?
The general bar association suggested pleading guilty. The lenient system of confession and punishment based on the defendant's confession has impacted the traditional defense system and brought great challenges and opportunities to lawyers' practice. Confession and punishment are proposed by lawyers. In the lenient system of pleading guilty, the effective defense of lawyers can ensure the voluntariness of the defendant's confession and strive for the defendant's best interests. But at this stage, the effective participation of lawyers is not sufficient. The reasons include unclear lawyer's role, imperfect system environment, difficult lawyer's defense and increased agency risk. In the future development, it is necessary to introduce strict rules to implement lawyers' participation and require lawyers to improve their coping ability.
Second, what is the positive role of lawyers?
(a) to ensure that the defendant's confession meets the requirements of "three natures"
The core content of "pleading guilty" is "truthfully confessing one's crime", that is, the defendant voluntarily confesses the true situation of the prosecuted behavior and admits that it constitutes a crime. It needs three elements: first, the voluntary nature of confession; Second, the voluntary nature of confession must be based on authenticity; Third, it is wise for the defendant to know whether the alleged behavior constitutes a crime and the possible legal consequences of pleading guilty. The main function of a lawyer is to ensure that the defendant's confession is voluntary, true and wise.
Under normal circumstances, the defendant does not have legal common sense or his legal rights are restricted, so it is difficult to objectively and accurately understand and grasp the factual basis of the case and the legal consequences of pleading guilty. Therefore, a professional lawyer must be involved in the case of confession and punishment.
(2) Strive for the best interests of the defendant.
If the defendant sacrifices his legitimate rights, such as the interests of the court debate procedure, he should gain relative substantive interests, otherwise it will not conform to the principle of equality of interests and rights. Therefore, the criminal suspects and defendants who choose to plead guilty should be given corresponding benefits. Effective communication between lawyers and investigation organs, procuratorial organs, courts and victims can strive for the best interests of defendants, including the application of lenient and compulsory measures in the investigation stage, non-prosecution in the examination and prosecution stage, light sentences in the trial stage, reconciliation with victims, and minimizing compensation.
In the investigation stage, lawyers can make suggestions on changing compulsory measures. The author does not advocate the application of the leniency system in the investigation stage. Since the lenient system of pleading guilty is applicable to the investigation stage, the investigation organ may be inclined to obtain the confession of the defendant and be lazy to exercise its obligation to investigate the facts of the case. However, criminal suspects and their defense lawyers can voluntarily confess to the investigation organ during the investigation stage. Relatively speaking, the criminal suspect who voluntarily confesses is less harmful to the person and society. Lawyers can suggest that the investigation organs apply less intensive coercive measures, and the prosecution opinions made at the end of the investigation clearly suggest that the procuratorial organs treat the suspects leniently.
In the trial stage, the effective defense of lawyers helps to obtain a judgment in favor of the defendant. According to the trial measures, lawyers can make suggestions on the "applicable procedures for case review after pleading guilty and admitting punishment". The application of different review procedures will actually have a great impact on the final trial result of the case. Especially when there may be doubts about the innocence of the entity or the innocence of the procedure in the case, the review procedure of the case actually plays the final "check" role. For example, when a case is on the verge of crime and non-crime, some defendants will choose to think that they have committed a crime from the perspective of general social evaluation and take the initiative to plead guilty in order to reduce the punishment. The participation of lawyers can suggest that the case-handling organ choose the general procedure with complete rules, and strictly examine the case according to the facts and evidence of the case to avoid the innocent defendant being investigated for criminal responsibility. Even if the lawyer knows that the defendant may have criminal facts, if the facts are unclear, the evidence is insufficient or the procedure is not standardized, it is possible to be acquitted according to the suspected crime without or excluding illegal evidence. The lawyer can also advise the defendant to give up pleading guilty and choose not guilty to avoid the crime. In addition, the Pilot Measures also stipulates: "When making a judgment, the court should generally adopt the charges and sentencing opinions accused by the procuratorate, except that the defendant does not constitute a crime or should not be investigated for criminal responsibility, pleads guilty against his will, denies the alleged criminal facts, and the charges prosecuted are inconsistent with those found in the trial and other circumstances that may affect the fair trial." This means that the case may change before the effective judgment is made. The lawyer's effective defense can help the judge find doubts at the last minute and avoid the final misjudgment.
In our daily life, lawyers play a very wide role, not only providing some legal consulting services, but also making different judgments on cases from some professional angles. For example, if there are criminal facts, you can suggest pleading guilty and admitting punishment.