"A mental patient who causes harmful results when he can't identify or control his behavior, and is confirmed by legal procedures, shall not bear criminal responsibility, but his family members or guardians shall be ordered to strictly guard and treat him; When necessary, compulsory medical treatment by the government; Intermittent mental patients who commit crimes when they are mentally normal should bear criminal responsibility; If a mental patient who has not completely lost the ability to identify or control his own behavior commits a crime, he shall bear criminal responsibility, but he may be given a lighter or mitigated punishment; A drunken person who commits a crime shall bear criminal responsibility; A deaf-mute or blind person who commits a crime may be given a lighter, mitigated or exempted punishment. "
In this regard, Liu Xiangzhong, Deputy Procurator-General of the People's Procuratorate of qiaoxi district, Zhangjiakou City, believes that this "special" case is a concrete practice of the People's Procuratorate in paying attention to protecting the legitimate rights and interests of the defendant in the process of reviewing the case. He said that it is necessary to strengthen the protection of the legitimate rights and interests of good citizens, but also attach importance to the protection of the legitimate rights and interests of criminal suspects and defendants, including special subjects such as mental retardation. The law does not clearly stipulate the criminal responsibility of the mentally disabled. In judicial practice, people often act in accordance with the "convention" and the law, without giving too much consideration to protecting the legitimate rights and interests of this special group. This may not reflect the fairness and essence of the law, because the mentally retarded are a special group after all.
Lawyer Huang Jing of Hebei Sanhe Times Law Firm believes that in this case, the court correctly characterized the case from the objective facts, instead of simply sticking to the objective appearance of the case, but through the objective appearance of the case, it deeply analyzed the subjective malignant influence of the defendant's intellectual disability on his crime, and fully considered the defendant when sentencing. This not only punished the crime, but also paid full attention to the protection of the legitimate rights and interests of the defendant (including the special defendant such as intellectual disability in this case).
In judicial practice, in the absence of explicit provisions in the law, some courts treat defendants with intellectual disabilities according to the criminal responsibility ability of normal people when dealing with crimes involving intellectual disabilities; Some courts, referring to the handling of this case, have reduced the punishment for mentally retarded defendants as appropriate ... This state of "having laws to follow" actually violates the basic principle of "everyone is equal before the law" in the Constitution and criminal law, which is not conducive to the construction of the socialist legal system. This problem needs to be solved through criminal legislation, that is, the National People's Congress and its Standing Committee have passed relevant legislative resolutions, which clearly stipulate the criminal responsibility of crimes committed by intellectual disabilities in our criminal law; Before that, it can also be solved temporarily in the form of judicial interpretation in the Supreme People's Court. In this way, judicial personnel can abide by the law and sentence according to law in the process of handling such cases, which not only realizes the fairness and unity of the socialist legal system, but also protects the legitimate rights and interests of the special group of mentally retarded people and achieves the purpose of punishing crimes, reforming and preventing them from committing crimes again. At present, China's criminal legislation and criminal justice are still in a relatively simple state of understanding the actor's responsibility ability and criminal form. Whether IQ and other factors should affect the criminal responsibility of the perpetrator, how the mentally retarded feel about the criminal law, and whether the application of a criminal law can achieve the purpose of deterrence and special prevention have not been touched.