First, protect the basic human rights of criminal suspects from infringement.
As far as all stages of criminal proceedings are concerned, the phenomenon of infringing on the personal rights of criminal suspects and defendants in the investigation stage is very serious, such as interrogating criminal suspects and searching for evidence. Investigation behavior is often accompanied by coercive force, and taking coercive measures is very likely to lead to the abuse of investigation power and extorting confessions by torture. It is the phenomenon that human rights are easily violated in the investigation stage that determines the importance of hiring lawyers to intervene in the investigation stage to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of criminal suspects.
Second, stabilize the psychology of criminal suspects, let them know about legal knowledge and learn to safeguard their legitimate rights and interests.
After being detained, the suspect's psychology will change dramatically, showing loneliness and helplessness, and even some psychologically fragile people will completely disintegrate their psychological defense. At this time, hiring a lawyer as their legal aid to intervene and go to the detention place will stabilize the suspect's mood. When lawyers meet, they can convey some information about their families, such as children's schooling, relatives' status, etc., which is easy to make criminal suspects feel psychologically comforted and safe and full of hope.
Through the legal interpretation of suspected related crimes, let them know the relevant legal knowledge and truly explain their problems according to law. At the same time, through consulting their rights and obligations and other legal knowledge, let them know their legitimate rights and interests, legal status and rights.
Third, lay a good foundation for the next step.
Lawyers' involvement in the investigation stage is conducive to lawyers' overall grasp and timely analysis of the case, to safeguarding the litigation rights of criminal suspects and defendants in criminal proceedings, and more importantly, to lay a good foundation for future defense. After many contacts with lawyers in the investigation stage, criminal suspects will gradually master legal knowledge, which is conducive to their self-defense in court.
According to the provisions of China's criminal procedure law, lawyers can do the following work in the investigation stage:
I. Provision of legal advice
In other words, when meeting with criminal suspects, answer their legal questions and provide legal advice.
Two. Acting as an agent for complaints and accusations
It means that in the investigation stage, if law enforcement officers commit acts that infringe the personal rights of criminal suspects, such as extorting confessions by torture, lawyers can appeal and accuse them on their behalf.
Third, apply for bail pending trial for the arrested criminal suspect.
If a criminal suspect is arrested, a lawyer may apply for bail pending trial in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Criminal Procedure Law of People's Republic of China (PRC).
Four, to understand the charges of the criminal suspect from the investigation organ.
Lawyers can ask the investigation organ about the charges of the criminal suspect who has been taken compulsory measures. If you think that the charges accused by the investigation organ are not established, you can express your lawyer's opinion.
Verb (abbreviation of verb) meets the criminal suspect in custody.
Lawyers have the right to meet with criminal suspects in custody and learn about the situation. Explain to him that investigators can refuse to answer questions irrelevant to the case; How the law stipulates the alleged crimes and the types and degrees of possible punishments; What is surrender; What is meritorious service? Those who have surrendered themselves or rendered meritorious service may be given a lighter or mitigated punishment according to law.
Six, the people's Procuratorate or public security organs to take compulsory measures beyond the statutory time limit, have the right to request the lifting of compulsory measures.
According to the law, lawyers have the right to put forward suggestions on lifting compulsory measures for criminal suspects detained by investigation organs for extended periods.
In criminal proceedings, lawyers can be entrusted in four stages: investigation, prosecution, trial and appeal, and provide legal help, defense and appeal for criminal suspects and defendants. Then, at which stage does the criminal suspect and defendant entrust a lawyer, and the effect is the best?
In the eyes of ordinary people, it should be the result of the defendant's acquittal, light crime or reduction or exemption from criminal responsibility through eloquence in the lawyer's court at the trial stage. In fact, this is a prejudice and misunderstanding.
Before working as a full-time lawyer, the author once served as the detachment leader of economic investigation and criminal investigation, with more than 20 years of criminal investigation experience. He is well aware of the working methods and ideas of the case-handling (investigation) organs, as well as the procedures and channels for obtaining evidence. According to the practical work experience, from the perspective of "expert" and "professional", the author thinks that the best time for lawyers to intervene in criminal proceedings should be in the investigation stage, especially on the day when criminal suspects are questioned for the first time or compulsory measures are taken, and the sooner they play their role, the better. The hardest part is actually in the beginning Only when a criminal suspect hires an entrusted lawyer in the investigation stage can he get timely and effective legal help, exercise the rights conferred by law and lay a solid foundation for the lawyer's later defense work.
First of all, the characteristics of criminal procedure itself determine that
Criminal litigation is different from other litigation, with strict litigation stages and different handling organs. From the investigation, prosecution to the end of the trial, the three organs of the Public Prosecution Law divide, coordinate and supervise the case. Very similar to the manufacturing process of factory products, there is a strict division of labor from design, material selection, processing and inspection, and different departments implement strict procedures, cooperate with each other and restrict each other.
According to the division of responsibilities of public, procuratorial and legal organs, the stage of filing a case for investigation is mainly the process in which the investigation organ discovers the crime, collects evidence and determines the criminal suspect, that is, the main processing-forming stage of criminal facts and evidence; The stage of examination and prosecution is the process of examining and checking the criminal facts and evidence formed in the investigation stage, exercising the right of public prosecution on behalf of the state according to the facts established in the investigation, and putting forward the opinion of investigating the criminal responsibility of the defendant according to law, that is, the stage of examination and examination of the investigation work-examination; The trial stage is the process of finally confirming the facts and evidence that have been investigated by public and procuratorial organs in accordance with legal procedures, and pursuing criminal responsibility according to law-the confirmation stage. From the whole division of responsibilities in criminal proceedings, it is not difficult to see that the key link is the link of filing a case for investigation.
On the other hand, violations of the personal rights of criminal suspects and defendants are very serious at this stage, such as interrogating criminal suspects, searching and collecting evidence. And the investigation behavior is often accompanied by coercive force and compulsory measures. This process is very easy to cause the abuse of investigation power and the occurrence of extorting confessions by torture. It is this phenomenon that human rights are easily violated in the investigation stage that determines the importance of safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of criminal suspects in the investigation stage, and also shows that the investigation stage is the most important link in the whole litigation activity.
Two, the investigation stage is the key stage to obtain and form criminal evidence.
Litigation is litigation, that is, playing evidence, and all litigation is around evidence. The facts confirmed by the court are facts proved by evidence, that is, legal facts. Only when objective facts are transformed into legal facts can judges draw conclusions according to law. All alleged facts must be supported by relevant evidence, and relevant evidence must form a chain before it can be confirmed by the court. The investigation stage is the key stage for investigation organs to discover, collect and extract fixed evidence, and the acquisition and formation of criminal evidence materials mainly comes from this stage.
Third, the investigation stage is the stage that the criminal suspect needs help most psychologically.
According to the author's experience in handling criminal cases, during the detention and arrest of criminal suspects, due to the influence of nervousness, fear and other emotions, there are often situations such as distraction, inattention, emotional excitement, great psychological changes and abnormal consciousness range. However, this period is the period when the investigation organs make full use of various means to interrogate criminal suspects, and almost all the key confessions on which criminal suspects are convicted are formed during this period. Criminal suspects are often confused, lack of basic legal knowledge, unable to identify induced or deceived confessions, unable to concentrate on carefully consulting and correcting interrogation transcripts, and often sign and sign in a daze. As a result, once awake, the range of consciousness returns to normal, and then trying to correct it becomes repentance. In practice, the vast majority of such "confessions" are not only futile, but also considered bad. During this period, criminal suspects need legal help and spiritual comfort most, keep calm and realistic, and cooperate with the investigation.
Four, the investigation stage is the main stage of the formation of illegal evidence.
Due to the influence of ultra-authoritarianism for a long time, the concept of human rights protection is only reflected in limited legal provisions, and investigation organs are also used to the concept of punishing crimes. Although there has been an essential change from "criminal" to "criminal suspect" in legal provisions, in the concept of most investigators, the two are still equated. Moreover, in the process of investigation, out of the guiding ideology of punishing crimes, investigators often only pay attention to the evidence collection of criminal suspects' guilt, while ignoring or deliberately avoiding the evidence extraction that is beneficial to them, such as innocence and light crime. No wonder unjust, false and wrong cases happen frequently. The formation of illegal evidence leading to unjust, false and wrong cases is in the investigation stage.
Although the Supreme People's Court's judicial interpretation that "the witness's testimony, the victim's statement and the defendant's statement obtained by extorting a confession by torture or threatening, luring or cheating can't be used as the basis for finalizing the case" supplements the deficiency of the legal provisions, which makes the criminal procedure in China have the rule of excluding illegal evidence, but due to the defects of the system and legislation itself, the rule is not operable.
The main reasons are: detention places and investigation organs (except procuratorial organs) belong to the internal organs of public security organs; In the closed and secret investigation stage, there is no mechanism to supervise and restrict the investigation organs, and the investigation activities of the investigation organs are only self-discipline; The law has no specific provisions on illegal evidence; There is no legal procedure for examining illegal evidence.
Because there is no exclusionary rule of illegal evidence, the evidence obtained by illegal means in the investigation stage can enter the trial smoothly. Therefore, it can be said that the investigation stage is an important stage of the "contest" between restriction and anti-restriction. It is not difficult to understand why the limited involvement of lawyers will greatly touch the nerves of investigation agencies accustomed to super-authoritarianism! Lawyers have no reason to be discouraged and wait for the perfection of the law. They should think rationally and find the "main points" of lawyers' work in the investigation stage. In fact, lawyers intervened in time and met in time, thus restraining, restricting and supervising the investigation organs to extort confessions by torture and illegally obtain confessions.
Fifth, make full use of the lawyer's right to meet in the investigation stage.
According to the law, in the investigation stage, only lawyers can accept employment and enjoy the right to meet according to law. Other units, organizations, relatives and friends who are not lawyers do not enjoy this right. According to the provisions of the new Lawyers Law, lawyers can meet with criminal suspects without interference or monitoring, that is, they can meet alone, and there should be no investigators present.
Once a criminal suspect is isolated from the outside world by compulsory measures taken by the investigation organ, as a family member and relative, he will often be very anxious and ask people around him to know about the suspected criminal behavior and try to get him out early. At this time, some people often get sick and seek medical treatment, and they are cheated out of a lot of money by so-called middlemen who can "fish them out". At the same time, their spirit suffered heavy losses and their property suffered losses.
In fact, at this time, according to the law, the best solution is to hire a lawyer promptly, use the lawyer's right to meet the criminal suspect quickly, and provide legal help promptly and effectively.
1, provide legal help. This is undoubtedly the most important role of lawyers. Lawyers can provide legal assistance to criminal suspects with their professional legal knowledge and rich experience in handling cases. For example, apply for bail pending trial for the parties concerned, assist the parties concerned or apply to the judicial organs to obtain evidence in favor of the criminal suspect, and put forward evidence and opinions on the suspect's innocence and light crime, and so on. Through the intervention of lawyers, we can effectively urge and supervise the judicial organs to strictly enforce the law, avoid the occurrence of misjudged cases, and protect the legitimate rights of criminal suspects to the maximum extent, which a non-professional can't do.
2. Provide psychological help to criminal suspects. Once a suspect is detained, he will be cut off from the outside world. At this point, the suspect is in a state of isolation and extreme panic and anxiety. After the intervention and interview of the defense lawyer, the suspect can feel that someone is helping him psychologically, and then through the persuasion of the lawyer, the best psychological comfort can be given to the detained suspect to help him through this anxiety period.
3. Send a message between the suspect and his family. Criminal suspects can explain some matters to their families through defense lawyers, of course, this must ensure that it has nothing to do with the case.
The investigation stage is in the early stage of criminal proceedings, and its importance is self-evident. At this time, the criminal suspect has often been taken compulsory measures by the investigation organ and his personal freedom has been lost. His various lawsuits and personal rights especially need the early intervention of lawyers. If we treat suspects as patients, then lawyers are similar to doctors. Doctors can't cure every patient, and lawyers can't exonerate every suspect. The doctor's role is to relieve the patient's pain as soon as possible, and the lawyer's role is to help the suspect as much as possible within the scope prescribed by law.