The first question is whether the defendant's behavior constitutes a crime, that is, conviction.
The second question, if the defendant's behavior constitutes a crime, what kind of punishment should be applied, that is, sentencing.
In China's criminal judicial practice, the vast majority of cases in the trial stage are found guilty, and it is not a problem for the people's court to convict.
However, misdemeanor and severe punishment are universal, especially when there are external factors, or when the judge ignores the plot in favor of the defendant.
1. Every year on Anti-drug Day, people are killed and severely punished. It's almost June. In June, drug prices usually go up.
Why?
As June 26th is the International Anti-drug Day, according to the usual practice, the judicial organs will kill many people around the Anti-drug Day and impose heavy penalties on them.
In order to avoid being sacrificed on the anti-drug day, many drug criminals will be restrained, which will reduce the circulation of drugs in the market and lead to an increase in drug prices.
After drug control a few years ago, there was a case in which the party was controlled to make drugs.
In this case, my client's partner sold 5 kilograms of drugs. My client was only accused of manufacturing more than 40 grams of finished products and more than 20 grams of semi-finished products. During the trial, local people's congress deputies and CPPCC members attended the trial, and some reporters participated in the report, probably on TV.
During the trial, the guilty person pleaded not guilty, but my client confessed his crime truthfully.
Because the hemp fruit is produced at a low concentration, the finished product does not reach 50 grams, and the semi-finished product only slightly exceeds 50 grams, so I thought at that time that the party concerned should be sentenced to 15 years.
Who knows, on the day of sentencing, the criminal was sentenced to death and my client was sentenced to life imprisonment. After the appeal, the Provincial High Court tried again and sentenced my client 15 years in prison.
Do you know the difference between 15 and life?
If a life-imprisonment prisoner does repent or perform meritorious service during the execution, he can generally be commuted to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than 18 years but not more than 20 years after serving two years. In other words, a life-imprisonment prisoner usually stays at least five years longer than a fixed-term prisoner of 15.
2. The meritorious service rendered by the first-instance judgment to the negligent party.
That was a long time ago. I made a drug trafficking case.
After the client arrived, the police asked, do you have any other offline?
The party concerned said that it was also sold to Zhang San, but Zhang San's address and basic information were not clear.
The policeman said, ok, brother, please take us. The party and the police.
Sure enough, the party gave the police a big gift. The police found more than 50 grams of ice in their residence and arrested Zhang San who was taking drugs with others on the spot.
This is not to help arrest, it should be meritorious service! But unexpectedly, the police, the prosecutor, the first-instance judge and the first-instance defense lawyer did not know that he had made meritorious service, so he was sentenced to life imprisonment.
At the second trial, I intervened in the case and applied to the court of second instance to verify whether the appellant had rendered meritorious service according to law.
The judge in charge wrote to the investigation organ.
The investigation organ issued a statement of the situation, because the appellant could not provide the specific address and Zhang San's specific situation, Zhang San could not be locked. Appellant Zhang San asked Appellant Zhang to solve the case when handling the case.