1. The tainted witness is a special kind of witness. He is a participant in criminal activities and is tainted with crime. He can testify for the national public prosecution agency in exchange for exemption from criminal prosecution or lighter or mitigated charges.
2. The tainted witness system is not expressly stipulated in our laws, but Article 86 1 of our criminal law stipulates: "If a criminal exposes another person's criminal behavior, which is verified by investigation, or provides important clues for the detection of other cases, he may be given a lighter or mitigated punishment; Those who have made significant meritorious deeds may be mitigated or exempted from punishment. " The so-called "significant meritorious service", according to the Supreme People's Court's Interpretation on Several Issues Concerning the Specific Application of Law in Handling Voluntary Surrender and Meritorious Service Cases, refers to the act of reporting and exposing other people's major criminal acts that may be sentenced to life imprisonment or more, or providing clues for the detection of equally serious criminal cases. In fact, tainted witnesses are also used to testify against other defendants. Among them, a typical case is that in the process of Chongqing No.1 Intermediate People's Court 1999 hearing the collapse of Qijiang Hongqiao, the procuratorate refused to prosecute the briber Fei Mou for accepting bribes in order to obtain evidence accusing the defendant Lin Mou, and he identified Lin Mou as the prosecution witness. Later, when Lin was sentenced to death, he was given a lighter punishment by the court because he actively reported and exposed the criminal facts of others and took the initiative to act as a prosecution witness. The immediate execution of the death penalty was changed to a two-year suspension.
3. Therefore, whether the tainted witness is imprisoned depends on the severity and cooperation of the original criminal name of the tainted witness.
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