Criminal Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China
Article 33 A criminal suspect has the right to entrust a defender from the day when he is interrogated for the first time by the investigation organ or compulsory measures are taken. During the investigation, only lawyers can be entrusted as defenders. The defendant has the right to entrust a defender at any time.
Extended data:
The main responsibility of the defender
Article 35 of the Criminal Procedure Law stipulates that the defender's responsibility is to provide materials and opinions to prove that the criminal suspect or defendant is innocent, the crime is light or the criminal responsibility is reduced or exempted, and to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of the criminal suspect or defendant.
Article 3 1 of the Lawyers Law also stipulates that, when a lawyer acts as a criminal defender, he shall provide materials and opinions to prove the innocence, light crime or mitigation or exemption of criminal responsibility of the criminal suspect and defendant according to facts and laws, and safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of the criminal suspect and defendant.
Therefore, the responsibilities of defenders include the following aspects:
1. Defend only on the basis of facts and laws, and do not fabricate facts or distort laws. Defenders must always adhere to the basic principles of taking facts as the basis and taking law as the criterion in criminal proceedings, and under no circumstances shall they help criminal suspects and defendants to fabricate, collude, forge or destroy evidence or threaten or induce witnesses to provide false evidence.
2. Put forward materials and opinions to prove that the criminal suspect or defendant is innocent, the crime is light or the criminal responsibility is reduced or exempted.
In criminal proceedings, defenders should focus on finding out and proving that the facts accused by criminal suspects and defendants are not what they did, or were falsely accused, framed or falsely accused or exposed, so the criminal suspects and defendants did not commit crimes at all; The acts of criminal suspects and defendants are obviously minor and harmless, and are not considered as crimes according to the law.
The people's procuratorate may make a decision not to prosecute if the circumstances of the crime are minor and there is no need to be sentenced to punishment or the punishment can be exempted according to the provisions of the criminal law; The people's procuratorate may decide not to prosecute a case whose evidence is still insufficient and does not meet the conditions for prosecution after two supplementary investigations by the investigation organ.
Although the act objectively caused damage, it was not intentional or negligent, but an act of self-defense or emergency avoidance caused by irresistible or unpredictable reasons.
People without criminal responsibility, including/kloc-people under 0/4 years of age or mental patients, cause harmful results when they cannot identify or control their own behavior; Some crimes committed by China citizens abroad are not punished according to local laws, and so on.
When a defender puts forward defense opinions on the defendant that the crime is light or the criminal responsibility is mitigated or exempted, he shall put forward materials and opinions that conform to the provisions of the Criminal Law and can or should be mitigated or exempted from punishment.
Paragraph 2 of Article 20 of the Criminal Law stipulates that if justifiable defense obviously exceeds the necessary limit and causes great damage, criminal responsibility shall be borne, but punishment shall be mitigated or exempted.
You can also put forward some materials and opinions that can be considered as mitigating circumstances in combination with the consistent performance of criminal suspects and defendants and their attitude of pleading guilty and repenting. At the same time, according to the specific case, the defendant can be given relevant materials and opinions on probation and execution outside prison.
3. Only in accordance with the law to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of criminal suspects and defendants. Defenders only protect the legitimate rights and interests of criminal suspects and defendants in criminal proceedings, but not all the interests of criminal suspects and defendants, let alone the rights and interests restricted or deprived according to law.
Defenders have many responsibilities in safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of defendants. If it falls into one of the six situations stipulated in Article 15 of the Criminal Procedure Law, criminal responsibility shall not be investigated. If a lawsuit has been filed, the defender shall urge the public security and judicial organs to dismiss the case according to law, or not to prosecute, or terminate the trial, or declare innocence.
If losses are caused to the criminal suspect or defendant due to wrong prosecution, the responsible organ shall make compensation; If the evidence is insufficient to prove that the defendant is guilty, he shall put forward an innocent defense opinion.
If the case constitutes a crime, the judicial organs are required to adhere to the principle of adapting crime to punishment and to administer justice fairly.
Database of laws and regulations-People's Republic of China (PRC) Criminal Procedure Law