Is it useful to appeal after refusing to accept the judgment of the first instance?

After the first-instance judgment of a criminal case, the defense lawyer will ask the parties: What do you think of the judgment? Do you want to appeal? The client often asks the lawyer: Is the appeal useful? This is not a simple question, the cases vary widely, and the specific cases are analyzed in detail. As far as the criminal cases I have undertaken are concerned, three cases were changed by appeal in the first half of the year, which shows that appeal is useful!

1. Fan's intentional injury was sentenced to death in the first instance and changed to death in the second instance. In the case of Fan's intentional injury causing death, Ningbo Intermediate People's Court sentenced him to death in the first instance. His relatives specially came to Hangzhou from Cixi, and entrusted Mr. Zhang to appeal to the Provincial High Court as a second-instance defender. After the Zhejiang Higher People's Court held a public hearing, Mr. Zhang put forward two kinds of defense opinions, namely, the fact that some key evidence crime tools were found to have major doubts and deficiencies, and the sentencing part did not reflect many mitigating circumstances, and combined with the relevant provisions of the Supreme Court's Guiding Opinions on Sentencing, he put forward the defense opinions of the defendant's abnormal death. Zhejiang Higher People's Court adopted lawyer Zhang's defense opinion, and on 20 13, 13, the sentencing part of Ningbo Intermediate People's Court was revoked. The second trial declared that Fan's death sentence was suspended, and Fan's life was saved.

Second, the first trial of Guo Nan theft case 10 years and 6 months, and the second trial was changed to 7.5 years. Guo Nan was sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment 10 years and 6 months by the Jianggan District Court for theft. Guo refused to accept, appealed to the Hangzhou Intermediate People's Court, and entrusted lawyer Zhang as his second trial defender. After accepting the entrustment, Mr. Zhang submitted a written Reply to the court of second instance after reading the papers and meeting the parties, and put forward three defense opinions, such as qualitative errors in the first instance and extremely light sentencing. On May 22nd, 20 13, Hangzhou Intermediate People's Court pronounced that the second trial adopted Mr. Zhang's defense opinion that the sentencing in the first trial was extremely light, and the sentence in the first trial was changed from ten years and six months to seven and a half years, which was three years less than that in the first trial.

3. Cai De blackmailed the first trial for three and a half years, and the retrial was changed to 1 year. Cai De was sentenced to three and a half years' imprisonment by a huangyan district court for extortion. After the appeal, Taizhou Intermediate People's Court sent him back for retrial on the grounds that the facts of extortion were unclear and the evidence was insufficient. Lawyer Zhang, as Cai De's defense lawyer, argued in court that the evidence was insufficient and the accusation could not be established. However, at this time, the client Cai De has been detained in the detention center for almost a year, and the new presiding judge reached a compromise with the client in sentencing. In the absence of any new evidence, the original trial was changed from three and a half years to one year on June 24, 20 13.