It is an important work to understand the case and the first process to defend the crime of accepting bribes. Be careful and meticulous. It is necessary to be familiar with and master the overall situation of the occurrence, development and outcome of the case. In particular, I am fully familiar with what facts or plots the defendant really has. Only in this way can we analyze and study on the basis of being particularly familiar with the case and decide how to defend the defendant's innocence. To be particularly familiar with the case, in addition to carefully consulting the case file and meeting the defendant to ask about the case, we should also conduct investigation and evidence collection to obtain physical evidence, documentary evidence, witness testimony or evidence with favorable expert conclusion that can prove the defendant's innocence.
Second, pay attention to the discretionary circumstances that are beneficial to the defendant.
Compared with statutory circumstances, discretionary circumstances refer to circumstances that are not expressly stipulated by law, but can be considered as a lighter or mitigated punishment for the defendant according to jurisprudence and judicial practice.
With the general improvement of the quality of public prosecutors, the level of prosecution and accusation is getting higher and higher, and some people even regard it as a battle to declare war on criminals. For some legal situations that can or should be given a lighter or mitigated punishment, such as being under 18 years old, being an accessory, having rendered meritorious service, etc. Indictment and indictment can generally be objectively identified, and the public prosecutor also took the opportunity to present the case to the court before the lawyer spoke in the court debate stage, which tends to prevent the lawyer from being a "good person" alone. Many lawyers feel more and more that the prosecutor should say the legal circumstances that are beneficial to the defendant first, and lawyers have nothing to say in court except "thank you" to the prosecutor. I don't think so. In my opinion, when encountering the above situation, we can simply acknowledge the statutory plot in favor of the defendant announced by the prosecutor (but never say "thank you" to the prosecutor), and free up more defense time and space to say more discretionary plots in favor of the defendant.
Third, pay attention to persuade the judge.
Persuasion is a basic skill of defense lawyers. Defense business is a basic litigation business, and the essence of litigation is persuasion. An excellent criminal defense lawyer can become a famous scholar and professor. But a scholar, professor or legal expert may not be a good criminal defense lawyer. Because criminal defense business is not teaching and imparting knowledge, but direct confrontation. The purpose of criminal defense lawyers participating in court defense is to convince the trial judge, not the prosecutor. Prosecutors can't convince you, because when they sit in court, they have set your defender's point of view in advance. Therefore, criminal defense lawyers should not confuse the object of persuasion. Otherwise, it will only get twice the result with half the effort, and the defense purpose will not be achieved.
Fourth, pay attention to the review of verbal evidence.
There are more indirect evidence and less direct evidence in duty crime cases; There are many written evidences, but few documentary evidences. All kinds of indirect evidence are mainly verbal evidence, which is the key to the success of duty crime.
Bribery, as a typical duty crime case, mainly relies on the verbal evidence of the parties (bribers, bribers and other witnesses), including confessions of bribers and bribers, witness testimony and so on. Moreover, among the cases of duty crimes investigated and handled by the procuratorial organs, a considerable number of cases were transferred by the local commission for discipline inspection (hereinafter referred to as the Commission for Discipline Inspection), which involves the problem of transforming the evidence materials identified by the Commission for Discipline Inspection into criminal evidence.
Legal basis: Article 390 of the Criminal Law of People's Republic of China (PRC) stipulates that whoever pays bribes shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than five years or criminal detention and fined; Whoever seeks illegitimate interests by bribery, if the circumstances are serious or cause heavy losses to the interests of the state, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than five years but not more than ten years, and shall also be fined; If the circumstances are especially serious, or the interests of the state suffer particularly heavy losses, they shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than 10 years or life imprisonment, and shall also be fined or confiscated.
If the briber voluntarily confesses the bribery before being prosecuted, he may be given a lighter or mitigated punishment. Among them, if the circumstances of the crime are minor, which plays a key role in the detection of major cases, or if there is significant meritorious service, the punishment may be mitigated or exempted.