Who is in charge of crime and non-crime?
Article 12 of the "Criminal Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China": No one may be convicted without a judgment by the people's court in accordance with the law.
The court is the judicial organ of the country. Some people call it the last line of defense for judicial justice. Convicting a person and imposing a penalty involves a person's most basic rights, such as reputation, personal freedom, and sometimes even life. Of course, the strictest procedural safeguards are required, and the court will eventually investigate.
This provision also reflects the legal concept of presumption of innocence. Before a court hears a case and makes a judgment in accordance with the law, even if a person is criminally detained by the public security organ, arrested by the procuratorate, reviewed for prosecution, or even prosecuted, he is still legally presumed to be innocent or called a criminal suspect, but cannot be determined to be a criminal suspect. criminal.
After the procuratorate files a lawsuit with the court, it enters the trial stage. At the end of the trial phase, the court will make a corresponding verdict, guilty or not guilty. Of course, at this stage, the procuratorate often thinks there are problems with the case and does not want the court to make a not guilty verdict. It will choose to drop the case and then settle the case without prosecuting. In addition, as a legal supervision agency, the procuratorate can retry the effective judgment through supervision procedures if it believes that there is indeed an error.
The "conviction" here is different from the "conviction" in the Criminal Procedure Law.
The "conviction" of the public security organs and procuratorial organs, also called "characterization", is to determine the suspected crime of the criminal suspect, focusing on the "suspected crime". The court's "finding of guilt" is a finding that the defendant's behavior constitutes a crime. The difference here is subtle and most people won't notice it, so they get confused.
There is also a situation where the procuratorate relatively does not prosecute criminal suspects with minor crimes (the number of crimes is not sufficient). It is not that they have committed a crime or that they are suspected of committing a crime. In the non-prosecution statement, It is clearly stated above.
The People’s Court has very limited room to not adopt the procuratorate’s sentencing recommendations.
This is very different from before the implementation of the guilty plea and punishment system. In the past, the procuratorate’s sentencing recommendations were broad and pure, not practical or symbolic, and did not have much binding force on the people’s courts. Unlike in the past, the procuratorate's sentencing recommendations are generally accurate. The People's Court cannot change the procuratorate's sentencing recommendations without special circumstances. If any change is required, the reasons should be explained to the procuratorate.
The Supreme People’s Procuratorate, in particular, has been demanding that procuratorial agencies across the country maximize “accurate sentencing.” How accurate is it? Including the type of actual punishment, specific sentence, specific amount of fine, whether probation is applicable, etc. , which is no different from the final judgment of the court.
Therefore, the criminal suspect’s penalty expectations have been advanced to the stage of review and prosecution by the procuratorate. As long as the criminal suspect pleads guilty and accepts punishment, the people's court should fully respect it, because this document is signed by the prosecutor, criminal suspect, and defender on the basis of sentencing consultation.
Neither the public security nor the procuratorate has the right to make a decision on whether the suspect is guilty or not. It can only be made after the court pronounces its verdict. In other words, only the court has the right to make a conclusion, and no other agency or department None have this right.