Who will collect evidence, what procedures should be followed, to what extent, and what requirements are required, all of which must be understood and kept in mind in order to become a qualified policeman.
Article 50 of the Criminal Procedure Law stipulates that judges, prosecutors and investigators must collect all kinds of evidence that can prove the guilt or innocence of criminal suspects and defendants and the seriousness of the crime in accordance with legal procedures. It is strictly forbidden to extort confessions by torture and collect evidence by threats, enticements, deception or other illegal methods, and no one may be forced to prove his guilt. It is necessary to ensure that all citizens who are related to or know the case have the conditions to provide evidence objectively and fully, and they can be hired to assist in the investigation except in special circumstances.
This article amends Article 43 of the Criminal Procedure Law before the amendment. After "it is forbidden to extort confessions by torture and collect evidence by threats, seduction, deception and other illegal methods", the provision "no one shall be forced to prove his guilt" has been added. This provision is often referred to as the principle of not being forced to testify against oneself, which aims to further curb illegal evidence collection such as extorting confessions by torture and safeguard judicial justice and the legitimate rights of participants in criminal proceedings.
First, the police must collect evidence in accordance with legal procedures. Collecting evidence is the basic work of handling cases, which is very important. The Criminal Procedure Law clearly stipulates various methods of collecting evidence. take for example
When interrogating a criminal suspect who may be sentenced to death or life imprisonment, he shall record and video the whole process;
When searching, you must produce a search warrant and make a record of the search;
The seized physical evidence and documentary evidence must be listed in duplicate on the spot, and so on.
In the process of collecting evidence, the police handling the case cannot violate these procedural regulations. More importantly, we can't cling to the evidence that can prove the guilt and guilt of criminal suspects and defendants, but completely ignore the evidence that proves our innocence and guilt. Even if your master does this, even if your master asks you to do this, you must be measured in your heart. After all, once you break the law, Master can't save you.
Two, it is strictly prohibited to collect evidence by illegal means. The so-called illegal methods generally refer to extorting confessions by torture and collecting evidence by means of threats, seduction and deception.
Extorting a confession by torture refers to an interrogation method that uses corporal punishment or disguised corporal punishment to force the defendant to confess guilt. Not only is it forbidden to extort confessions by torture when interrogating defendants, but it is also forbidden to force testimony or provide evidence when interrogating witnesses or other people.
Torture is strictly prohibited in China. Article 247 of the Criminal Law specifically stipulates the crime of extorting confessions by torture. Judicial personnel who extort confessions from criminal suspects or defendants by torture shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years or criminal detention. Whoever causes disability or death shall be given a heavier punishment for intentional injury and intentional homicide. Thousands of policemen lost their jobs because of extorting confessions by torture.
According to the law, the confessions and excuses of criminal suspects and defendants, witness testimony and expert opinions obtained by illegal means such as extorting confessions by torture cannot be used as the basis for finalizing the case, and it is useless to take these measures.
More importantly, the police "shall not force anyone to prove their guilt". This article is particularly important, because it was specially added when the Criminal Procedure Law was revised, and the previous law did not have this article.
Three, we must ensure that all citizens related to the case or know the case have the conditions to provide evidence objectively and fully. It is necessary to fully listen to and record the testimony of witnesses and collect other evidence provided by relevant citizens. We should not only listen to and record the testimony that proves the defendant guilty, but also refuse to listen to and record the testimony that proves the defendant innocent, or refuse to listen to and record the evidence that proves the defendant innocent provided by the citizens concerned.
What are the legal ways to obtain evidence? There are clear provisions in the Criminal Procedure Law, including inquests, inspections, searches and interrogations of criminal suspects and defendants, interrogations of victims and witnesses, identification, identification, seizure, seizure, freezing and investigation experiments. The criminal procedure law has no prescribed means and cannot be used to collect evidence, or even if some results are obtained, it cannot be used as evidence.
For example, a polygraph is used to draw the conclusion that someone has committed a certain behavior, but because the criminal procedure law does not stipulate that a polygraph can be used to collect evidence, its conclusion can not be used as evidence, but only as a reference to determine the direction of investigation.