First, the social harmfulness of the Ma Jiajue case.
The object of crime refers to the social relations protected by our criminal law and violated by criminal acts, also known as legal interests. Ma Jiajue's criminal behavior infringes on the overall object of socialist relations protected by the state. The similar object of infringement is the right to life of human beings, and the direct object is the right to life of four students. In my opinion, he destroyed the stability of social order to a certain extent, and the death of four students also brought indelible pain to their families, which seriously affected the normal social order. Objectively speaking, Ma Jiajue illegally deprived others of their lives. Specifically, Ma Jiajue ignored the law and killed four college students with blunt instruments for three consecutive days, resulting in the end of four innocent lives. There is an inevitable causal relationship between harmful behavior and harmful result. In particular, Ma Jiajue's behavior of hiding the victim's body after murder and absconding for fear of sin can be described as extremely harmful to society, with particularly bad circumstances and serious consequences.
According to the provisions of China's criminal law, the actor committed a crime, and the criminal responsibility of the actor must require the actor to have the ability of criminal responsibility. The so-called criminal responsibility ability refers to the ability of the actor to identify and control his own behavior in the sense of criminal law, which is a necessary condition for the actor to constitute a crime and bear criminal responsibility. The criminal responsibility of the actor includes two aspects, namely, the ability to identify and the ability to control. According to the influence of the actor's age, mental state and other factors on criminal responsibility ability, China's criminal law divides criminal responsibility ability into complete criminal responsibility ability, complete criminal responsibility ability, relative criminal responsibility ability and reduced criminal responsibility ability. Article 18 of the Criminal Law stipulates that a mental patient who causes harmful results when he can't identify or control his own behavior, and is confirmed by legal procedures, shall not bear criminal responsibility, but his family members or guardians shall be ordered to take strict care and medical treatment, and the government shall force medical treatment when necessary. Intermittent mental patients who commit crimes when they are mentally normal should bear criminal responsibility. If a mental patient who has not completely lost the ability to identify or control his own behavior commits a crime, he shall bear criminal responsibility, but he may be given a lighter or mitigated punishment. As an adult who has reached the age of 18, Ma Jiajue has full criminal responsibility, can clearly identify his own behavior, control his own actions, and can adapt to the punishment and education functions of the penalty. Although Ma Jiajue's defender defended his mental state to some extent, he was rejected by the judge after many appraisals. The conclusion is that the perpetrator did not have mental disorder when committing the crime, and there was no lighter, mitigated or exempted circumstances when sentencing. Later, after seeing Li Meijin, a professor of criminal psychology at the People's Public Security University of China, analyzing Ma Jiajue's personality, I discussed with my classmates whether we should forgive λ for Ma Jiajue's split personality. He is extremely sensitive and angry about quarreling. He ignores life and is prone to the impulse of "killing". Another remarkable feature of his way of thinking is that almost everything starts with "I". Should such a person who is mentally unhealthy and needs social help attract the attention of the school and even the society and be tolerated by the public? Compared with us normal people, he belongs to a vulnerable group, so can his crime be forgiven? After careful analysis, it seems that this should not be used to excuse him. The law is before us. Any criminal actor, I think, will have unhealthy psychological factors, so it cannot be a sentencing factor. If we forgive his split personality, it will undoubtedly pave the way for possible dangers in the future and stay in the original environment, then the symptoms of split personality will not be improved, and Ma Jiajue's criminal thoughts will still emerge. Then criminals with symptoms of split personality should be convicted and punished according to law, so that they can gradually hone themselves in punishment, get rid of unhealthy factors and degenerate themselves. According to the laws of China, Ma Jiajue's criminal punishment is extremely serious. We can only regret that he has no chance to turn over a new leaf.
Subjectively, Ma Jiajue had the intention of illegally depriving others of their lives, knowing that his actions would inevitably lead to serious consequences that would endanger society, but he hoped that this would happen. From the motive and purpose, due to the lack of moral education and the incitement of revenge psychology, Ma Jiajue took a criminal step and embarked on an irreversible road. During the whole criminal process, Ma Jiajue made up his mind to kill people, and after the first and second murders, he didn't show any remorse and wouldn't stop until he reached his goal. He is very subjective. Since it is a deliberate crime, there must be a stop mode. Four intentional homicides are all completed, and a serial offender is established in the form of the number of crimes, that is, based on the same or broad criminal intentions, several independent crimes with the same nature are committed continuously, which violates the same crime. The first paragraph of Article 89 of China's Criminal Law stipulates that a serial offender shall be counted from the date when the criminal act ends. According to the law of China, the more times he commits crimes, the heavier the punishment he should receive. According to different circumstances, in accordance with the relevant provisions of the criminal law, heavier or heavier punishment. Killing four students in a row violates the individual's right to life, and the death penalty is the first punishment of intentional homicide, so it is inevitable to sentence Ma Jiajue to death.
Second, the penalty discretion in Ma Jiajue case.
As for the discretionary circumstances of sentencing, the defendant had no criminal record before committing the crime, and he felt fear and regret after committing the crime, and showed some remorse. His defense lawyer mentioned that we should consider and reflect, and hoped that the people's court would be lighter and lighter in sentencing the defendant, so the issue involved discretionary sentencing circumstances and the death penalty. In China's criminal law, sentencing circumstances are divided into statutory sentencing circumstances and discretionary sentencing circumstances. Statutory sentencing circumstances refer to sentencing circumstances that must be considered when sentencing. Ma Jiajue can't get relief from the statutory sentencing circumstances, so how will he be considered in the discretionary sentencing circumstances? Discretionary sentencing circumstances are not expressly stipulated in China's criminal law, but they play an important role in the social harm and personal danger of the perpetrator. Because the statutory sentencing circumstances are the sentencing circumstances stipulated in the criminal law, the people's courts must apply them according to law. Although the criminal law does not clearly stipulate discretionary sentencing circumstances, we also need to pay attention to it in order to ensure the fairness of sentencing. "Whether the crime of intentional homicide is sentenced to death depends not only on whether it caused the death of the victim, but also on the overall situation of the case. The crime of intentional homicide caused by the intensification of civil conflicts such as marriage, family and neighborhood disputes must be applied carefully and should be distinguished from other intentional homicide cases that seriously endanger social order. If the victim has obvious faults or is directly responsible for the intensification of contradictions, or the defendant has a statutory lighter punishment, the death penalty should generally not be sentenced to immediate execution. " [] This provision pays full attention to the significance of discretionary sentencing circumstances in the application of death penalty. The court held that in this case, the defendant Ma Jiajue was a student before committing the crime and had no criminal record, and he also showed remorse after committing the crime. The people's court should really fully consider whether to apply the death penalty to him, including the way of execution. However, the court pointed out: in the whole criminal process, the murderer in Ma Jiajue determined that the means of committing crimes were cruel; Hiding the victim's body after killing, absconding for fear of sin, is extremely harmful to the criminal society, and the circumstances are particularly bad and the consequences are particularly serious. Should be severely punished according to law, immediately sentenced to death. From the court's reply, we can see the fairness and authority of the law and reconfirm the principle of suiting crime to punishment. Here, I also feel that when a person's criminal behavior can't be applied to various sentencing circumstances, it shows how serious and bad his behavior is, and even if there are more reasons, it can't be forgiven by law.
The difference between thoughts may have serious consequences and be severely punished. Everyone is equal before the criminal law. The sentencing principle of "taking facts as the basis and law as the criterion" also tells us the key role of legal provisions. The Ma Jiajue incident shocked us, but it also deserves our reflection. We know the importance of strengthening our own legal concept. Youth is fleeting, and crime and non-crime are in the blink of an eye. We need each of us to stick to principles and prevent crime. Today, as students majoring in law, we should strive to learn and use the law well, promote the process of popularizing the law among the whole people with our own strength, and work hard to further realize a harmonious society.