Of course. However, the defendant in a criminal case can appeal at most once.
China's courts implement the system of second instance and final adjudication, so under normal circumstances, we appeal once, and the judgment made by the court of second instance is the final judgment.
Article 225 of the Criminal Procedure Law stipulates that the people's court of second instance shall handle cases of appeal or protest against the judgment of first instance according to the following circumstances:
(a) the original judgment found the facts and applicable laws correct, and the sentence was appropriate, so the appeal or protest was rejected and the original judgment was upheld;
(two) the original judgment found that the facts were not wrong, but the applicable law was wrong, or the sentence was improper, and the judgment should be revised;
(3) If the facts in the original judgment are unclear or the evidence is insufficient, the judgment may be revised after the facts are ascertained; You can also make a ruling to revoke the original judgment and send it back to the people's court that originally tried it for a new trial.
If the defendant appeals or the people's procuratorate protests after the people's court of first instance has made a judgment on the case sent back for retrial in accordance with the provisions of the third paragraph of the preceding paragraph, the people's court of second instance shall make a judgment or ruling according to law and will not send it back to the people's court of first instance for retrial.
Second, will the defendant's appeal in criminal proceedings increase the punishment?
The court of second instance shall not aggravate the defendant's punishment when hearing the case appealed by the defendant, his legal representative, defender and close relatives. Where a people's procuratorate lodges a protest or a private prosecutor lodges an appeal, the above restrictions shall not apply.
(1) * * In the same criminal case, if only some defendants appeal, neither the punishment for the defendant who appealed nor the punishment for other co-defendants can be aggravated;
(2) If the facts in the original judgment are clear and the evidence is sufficient, but the charges are improper, the charges can be changed without aggravating the punishment in the original judgment;
(3) If the defendant is punished for several crimes, the penalty decided to be executed in the original judgment shall not be aggravated, nor shall the penalty for one of several crimes be aggravated;
(4) If the defendant is sentenced to criminal detention or fixed-term imprisonment and a suspended sentence is pronounced, the suspended sentence declared in the original judgment shall not be revoked or the probation period of the suspended sentence shall not be extended;
(5) In cases where the facts are clear and the evidence is sufficient, but the punishment is particularly light, or the supplementary punishment should be applied but not applicable, the judgment of first instance shall not be revoked, the defendant's punishment shall be directly aggravated or the supplementary punishment shall not be applied, and the facts shall not be sent back to the people's court of first instance for retrial because of unclear facts or insufficient evidence. If the sentence must be changed according to law, it shall be retried in accordance with the procedure of trial supervision after the judgment or ruling of second instance takes effect.
3. Can the defendant in a criminal case not appear in court?
Defendants are not allowed to appear in court in criminal cases.
With reference to the provisions of Article 291 of the Criminal Procedure Law of People's Republic of China (PRC), if a criminal suspect or defendant is abroad and transferred for prosecution by a supervisory organ or a public security organ, the people's procuratorate considers that the facts of the crime have been ascertained and the evidence is true and sufficient, and shall be investigated for criminal responsibility according to law. If it needs to be tried in time, it shall be approved by the Supreme People's Procuratorate. After examination, if the criminal facts alleged in the indictment are clear and meet the applicable conditions of trial by default, the people's court shall decide to hold a hearing.
The above is the relevant legal knowledge about whether the defendant can appeal in criminal cases. To sum up, the defendant in criminal cases can appeal once, and the general appeal will not aggravate the punishment. If you have any other questions, please feel free to consult, and we will have professional lawyers to answer them for you.