review is purely for the purpose of completing the teacher’s homework~ With respect for the law, I always believe that the court is a place to discover the truth and return justice to the world. At the beginning of the film, it nakedly tells the viewers: "If you want to get justice back, Go to a brothel and go to court if you want to be abused." In this film, a trial in the name of justice, the so-called confrontation between justice and evil is full of various ugliness of human nature, the hypocrisy of the archbishop, and the fame and fortune of the lawyer. , The private interests of the state attorney general, the position of a female prosecutor. And these people all suffered abuse and trial in this court, but the real murderer finally escaped the sanctions of the law. Let’s not discuss whether Alan’s killing of the archbishop is well-known. Let's take a look at the American judicial system reflected in this film and discuss the institutional factors in which the murderer did not receive legal sanctions in the end.
Plea bargaining system: From the beginning of the film, lawyer Martin began plea bargaining with the state attorney general for his client Pan Joey. The prosecutor’s assistant pointed out angrily that Pan Joey was a desperate man who sold drugs, extorted money, and laundered money. It looks like a heinous person, but lawyer Martin emphasized "suspicion." This term not only embodies the principle of presumption of innocence, but also is based on the lawyer's lack of evidence for the prosecution, and the accusation is difficult to establish. When the evidence is insufficient, prosecutors are more inclined to choose plea bargaining to avoid the danger of losing the case. Sure enough, the prosecutor put forward his price: 1.5 million, he had to leave the state. In communicating with Pan Joey, Martin's lawyer also told him that it is best to accept this suggestion unless he wants to appeal for two years. The plea bargaining system seems to be a win-win-win model. Prosecutors do not have to bear the risk of high-cost trials and the suspects will be found not guilty, and they can commit to more serious crimes. The suspect has also been spared years of lawsuits and heavier penalties. The agent can also get 40% of the amount paid by the suspect (the commission for the case in the film). Later, the film mentioned: Panjoy said that two months ago, the police found him and asked him to help the police charge Admartina, and then offered to exchange terms, but also to let him leave the state (without prosecuting his criminal behavior). This is another reason for the use of plea bargaining in order to obtain the defendant’s cooperation in the prosecution of other more serious crimes.
The so-called plea bargaining refers to the negotiation and bargaining between the prosecutor and the defendant or his defense lawyer to reach an agreement in which the defendant pleads guilty in exchange for a lighter conviction or sentence. The plea bargaining system is one of the systems that best reflects the characteristics of the American criminal prosecution function. The arbitrariness of the American prosecutor's public prosecution function is manifested here. After the plea reached an agreement, the court would no longer conduct a substantive trial of the case, but only formally confirm the content of the agreement between the two parties. Today, 90% of criminal cases in the United States are completed through the plea bargaining system. In other words, in fact, only 10% of cases require a jury to be tried in court. This is of great help to saving judicial resources and improving judicial efficiency. The former Chief Justice of the United States Warren Berg once said that if the proportion of plea bargaining in all cases is reduced from the current 90% to 80%, it needs to be equipped with double manpower and material resources, including judges, court clerks, and bailiffs. , Jurors and trial venues, etc. However, the voices of opposition to the plea bargaining system are also higher than one wave. Many people believe that the plea bargaining system damages judicial justice and allows criminals who should be subject to legal sanctions to get away with impunity, while the rights of victims cannot be fully realized. Assure.
The widespread implementation of the plea bargaining system in the United States has its background. There are many cases, and if every case has to go through the process of convening a jury, the case closure rate will be greatly reduced, resulting in a backlog of cases, increasing the burden on the judicial system and the burden on both the prosecution and the defense, and some urgently need financial resources. Victims who are compensated for medical treatment and even survive are caught in a survival predicament due to the inability of the case to be concluded. This is a game about justice and efficiency. "Justice delayer is justice denied". Of course, in the use of the plea bargaining system, U.S. law has also made restrictions and requirements to ensure the realization of justice.
Should a plea bargaining system be introduced in our country? For our country, the number of cases has increased dramatically in recent years, which has brought tremendous pressure to limited judicial resources. In our country's criminal procedure system, summary procedures are also provided, and ordinary procedures simplify the triage of cases. So whether it is possible to introduce a plea bargaining system? In April 2002, the Heilongjiang Mudanjiang Railway Transportation Court used the American plea bargaining to deal with the case of Meng Guanghu's intentional injury, which aroused the attention and discussion of the media and legal circles on the introduction of the plea system. In my opinion, one of the biggest obstacles to the introduction of the plea system is the lack of credibility of the judicial system and the excessive influence of public opinion on judicial trials. The people in our country have a deeper understanding of the law and more understanding of the various injustices in the judicial system, which has aroused great public outrage. And China’s ethical tradition for thousands of years believes that murder pays for life is justified, and guilt must be investigated. The plea bargaining system is more likely to be regarded as "money for freedom" and "money power transaction" among the people. It is still unknown how much damage it will cause to the already extremely weak judicial system. Just like the issue of the abolition of the death penalty, it will stir up waves with one stone. Therefore, it is very difficult to introduce the plea bargaining system and how to fill the gap between common people's opinions with the voice of experts.
Lawyer system: After Martin saw the news of Alan’s arrest, his professional sensitivity told him that this would be a popular case. At the time, he wanted to take the case not for justice, but just to be famous. For my own professional career. When Allen's whereabouts were found, he quickly met with Allen and asked to become his lawyer, provide free services, and said that he would be exempt from prison. Martin's words also revealed that if Allen does not accept him and uses a cheap public lawyer, he will be prepared to sit in prison. This also reflects the reality of American society. Only the rich can afford to hire a barrister to defend their defense. After the brainstorming of many lawyers, they are finally saved from prison, while the poor can only receive legal aid, and the quality of aid is not high. , And had to accept severe penalties.
American lawyers enjoy high rights. In the film, when Martin easily visited the "detention center" where Allen was detained, the prison guards did not obstruct or demand any documents. It is only natural for a lawyer to meet with his client. Martin can also go deep into the scene to conduct on-site investigations. For the first investigation, the policemen guarding the crime scene were shown proof documents, and then the police only informed him, paying attention to keeping the scene as it was, and allowed him to enter the scene for investigation. Later, when Martin suspected that a third person had committed the crime, he in-depth collection of evidence and even "caught" the witness Ali in order to ascertain the circumstances of the case. Martin invoked the US Constitutional Amendment in court to summon the state attorney general as a witness and obtained the judge's permission. Lawyers in our country are much more cramped. Lawyers do not have the right to read files during the investigation stage, and cannot investigate and collect evidence. They are also supervised by investigators even when they meet with criminal suspects. Under this kind of power doctrine, it is difficult for criminal defense lawyers to let go of their hands and fight for their clients' due rights.
Privilege rule: The privilege between the lawyer and the client is that the client has the right to refuse to disclose and organize others to disclose the secret conversation between the client and the lawyer. Therefore, attorney Martin was able to talk about everything when talking with Allen, and even taught him how to put on an innocent face to win the sympathy of the jury. American Professor Waltz pointed out: “One of the basic reasons for the existence of special immunity is that society expects to promote certain relationships by keeping secrets. The society attaches great importance to certain relationships and prefers to defend secrets, even at the expense of losing information that has a major bearing on the outcome of the case. For example, it’s hard to imagine anything that can hinder the discovery of facts more than the privilege of “lawyer-client”. In addition, there are the privileges between doctors and patients, husbands and wives, and between clergy and penitents. These privileges are guaranteed. The existence of some basic morals in society enables the smooth operation of social machines. If these privileges are not guaranteed, then the society will definitely fall into a panic crisis of trust. This is the end of the film, Allen exposed Because he is not a real patient with multiple personality disorders, he escaped legal punishment by pretending to be mentally ill. Attorney Martin left the detention center lonely, unable to prove Allen’s murder.
This privilege system is in line with the ancient Chinese The "acquaintances and concealment" has the same effect. But China's current legal system always overemphasizes substantive justice, where errors must be corrected, and puts procedural justice aside, but it does not necessarily achieve justice. The connotation it should have.
Evidence display system: In this film, Martin is pleading not guilty and is always looking for a so-called third person. Therefore, when it was later discovered that Allen may have multiple personality disorders, he could not change the defense of innocence at the time, and could only secretly leave the video of the criminal motives discovered at the prosecutor’s door, and induced the female prosecutor to inspire Ai during cross-examination. Lun’s second personality. In court, when Martin's defense deviated from the innocence defense, the prosecutors protested, and the judge also gave Martin a warning. This is based on the fact that if the defense prepares to present a defense of the defendant's mental problems at the time of the trial, it must inform the prosecutor and the court of this intention in writing within the statutory time limit. Otherwise, the defense cannot make such a defense. If the defense prepares to show in the trial that the defendant is suffering from mental illness, mental deficiency, or other mental conditions related to criminal liability and expert testimony, it should also inform the prosecutor and the court of this intention in writing within the statutory time limit. According to the request of the prosecutor, the court may conduct a compulsory inspection of the defendant's mental condition. If the defendant fails to perform the obligation of notification or does not obey the court's inspection order, the court can exclude the relevant expert testimony submitted by it. This kind of evidence system can prevent any party of the prosecution and defense from presenting new evidence in the court or concealing evidence beforehand and conducting a surprise attack in the court, resulting in any party being unprepared and unable to carry out effective defense.
In the end, when the court found that Allen might have a mental disorder, the judge dismissed the jury because it was inconsistent with the trial when the jury was convened. Obviously, Allen may eventually be exempt from legal sanctions due to mental disorders.
This kind of mental appraisal can refer to the case of Qiu Xinghua in previous years in our country. The death sentence of Qiu Xinghua in the first instance was not only a relief to the victims, but also to all the people who maintained a simple morality, killing and paying for their lives. However, the application of Qiu Xinghua's forensic appraisal of mental illness caused a wave of waves and aroused huge responses from all parties. On the one hand, there are complaints of blood and tears from the families of the victims and the public opinion of the civilians who have no choice but to kill; on the other hand, legal experts wave the banner of the rule of law to call for psychiatry, and at the same time, judges are also bearing the balance of their own legal professionalism and moral feelings. The confrontation between public opinion and the elite is on the cusp. The lack of legal procedures for the identification of such mental conditions is the key to this conflict. It also reminds the attention and reconstruction of procedural justice in our judicial system. And how to explain to the people the abolition of the death penalty.
About some American ideas embodied in the film. When he was chatting with the media people who interviewed him in the bar, Martin first complained about the major social criticism that the lawyer had suffered. However, when the media person asked: Why did you resign from public office. There is a sentence in Martin's answer: why be a referee if you can play. As an American criminal defense lawyer, Martin must be the envy of Chinese criminal defense lawyers. In order to protect human rights, the American judicial system has many systems for the protection of the rights of defendants, such as the well-known evidence system, Miranda rules, etc. Wait. Therefore, lawyers are given great rights. In court, the professionalism and defense skills of lawyers can also call the wind and rain. Even affect the jury and ultimately affect the verdict. Regarding the restriction of public power, the actions of judges and prosecutors must also be lawful, avoiding wanton and reckless actions of public power. Therefore, Martin is willing to play on the court, rather than just being a referee. The situation in China is completely different. With the more and more crowded civil servants taking exams, more people are willing to take this shortcut and enter the ranks of referees, because referees mean power. The power-based thinking makes people more willing to be referees, while those on the court do not pay attention to strength and skills and turn back to seek help outside the system.
Art is always source and life higher than life. From the perspective of Americans, this film is more willing to reveal the total malpractice of the American judicial system, which ultimately leads to the murderer's impunity. For our country where the slogan of judicial reform is loud and raindrops are small, it has great significance for reference.
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