Why are there so many criminal cases without arrest or prosecution?
Deciphering Zhejiang Jinhua Procurator's Reform Path to Fewer Arrests and Careful Prosecutions
● In 2021, the non-arrest rate of criminal cases in Jinhua City will be 21%, and the arrest rate will be 29.28%, a year-on-year decrease of 10.12 percentage points, the largest drop in the province; Ranked the lowest in the province; the pre-litigation detention rate was 30.7%, a year-on-year decrease of 19.52 percentage points, and the decline was the first in the province
● Innovative production of three-color codes: For those with a possible sentence of imprisonment of less than three years, the public security organs will directly release them on bail pending trial; for serious crimes with a statutory sentence of less than three years in prison, the public security organs can report for arrest, but they should fully demonstrate Reasons for reporting arrest; cases with statutory sentences of less than five years in prison are marked in yellow, and after the public security organs report for arrest, if the criminal suspect pleads guilty and accepts punishment, the prosecutor may convict without arrest after reviewing
● Trial implementation of the "compensation bond system", that is, the suspect in minor criminal cases has the willingness and ability to make compensation, but fails to meet the demands of the victim or his legal representative or close relatives, or because of intensified conflicts between the two parties. Reconciliation agreement is reached. After the criminal suspect voluntarily expresses his willingness to pay compensation and pays a certain amount of compensation bond to the notary public, the criminal suspect makes a decision not to approve the arrest, change it to a non-custodial compulsory measure, relatively non-prosecution or recommend a suspended sentence.
□ Our reporter Chen Dongsheng
□ Our correspondent Jin Qianru
"I made a mistake because of impulse. The prosecutor did not handle the case mechanically. I support the result of the case." Peng, a citizen of Yiwu, Zhejiang, quarreled with Yuan over business cooperation and punched Yuan in the face. It was identified that Yuan suffered minor injuries. class.
During the review and prosecution stage, Peng expressed his willingness to reconcile to the prosecutor. With the joint efforts of Peng's family, the people's mediator and the prosecutor, Yuan agreed to the mediation plan and issued a letter of understanding.
Subsequently, the People's Procuratorate of Yiwu City, Zhejiang Province immediately initiated a review of the necessity of detention for Peng.
After conducting a digital quantitative evaluation of Peng according to the "Percentage-Based Quantitative Evaluation Form", the undertaking prosecutor scored 85 points, and the comprehensive case facts and evidence met the standard of non-prosecution. He was released on bail pending trial and was ultimately relatively unsuspected.
It is understood that the "Percentage-Based Quantitative Evaluation Form" is a set of digital quantitative non-prosecution evaluation standards innovatively designed by the Yiwu City Procuratorate for minor injury cases. Consistent performance scores in six aspects, if the case score exceeds 80 points, the criminal suspect may be considered relatively not prosecuted.
Since the application of the assessment form last year, 5 people have been relatively not prosecuted, and the social response has been good.
This is a microcosm of the Zhejiang Jinhua Procuratorate's promotion of the reform of fewer arrests, careful prosecution and careful detention.
The data shows that in 2021, the non-arrest rate of criminal cases in Jinhua City will be 21%, and the arrest rate will be 29.28%, which is 7.28 percentage points lower than that of Zhejiang Province, a year-on-year decrease of 10.12 percentage points, the largest decline in the province; the non-prosecution rate is 24.76%, a year-on-year increase of 0.87. The rate of misdemeanor prosecution was 9%, ranking the lowest in the province; the pre-trial detention rate was 30.7%, a year-on-year decrease of 19.52 percentage points, ranking first in the province.
How did Jinhua achieve three provincial firsts in one year?
The "Rules of Law Daily" reporter recently went deep into the local procuratorate to conduct an investigation and interview.
Refinement of applicable standard scales
Implement the concept and fulfill the policy
Fewer arrests, careful prosecution and careful detention is a systematic project, not a matter of prosecuting a family.
In March 2021, the Jinhua City People's Procuratorate and the Municipal Public Security Bureau jointly issued the "Guiding Opinions on Reducing Detention Criminal Coercive Measures (Trial)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Guiding Opinions"), from "should be applicable, applicable, and not applicable. "Three levels, refine the applicable standards and standards of coercive measures, strengthen the effective connection of mechanisms such as leniency in plea guilty and accepting punishment, and review of the necessity of detention, and provide institutional guarantees for reducing the rate of pre-trial detention.
At the same time, the two companies also jointly issued the "Measures for Consultative Resolution of Investigation and Supervision Disputes (for Trial Implementation)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Measures for Resolution") to clarify the review principles for common disputes.
"In recent years, Jinhua's social security has generally improved, with more than 80% of misdemeanor cases under three years, and the introduction of the "Guiding Opinions" is just in time. Carry out expedited determination of minor criminal cases, establish a mechanism for reviewing the necessity of arrest and quarterly notification, and implement an investigation supervision and cooperation office to strengthen internal and external supervision." Jin Sheng, executive deputy director of the Jinhua Public Security Bureau, said that the research and development of a digital closed loop for non-custodial personnel The supervision system is one of these measures, which can effectively ensure the smooth progress of criminal proceedings.
According to Jinsheng, as of January this year, the system has achieved dynamic management and control of 4,439 people on bail and residential surveillance in the city. Currently, 3,379 people are under control, and 1,060 people have been successfully controlled.
Fewer arrests and prudent prosecutions and prudence does not mean no arrests, no prosecutions, and no arrests.
In order to further realize the exchange of ideas, Xia Yun, director of the First Procuratorate of the Jinhua City Procuratorate, led a team to the Municipal Public Security Bureau. With the help of the platform of the public security organ's legal system lecture hall and the legal system detachment, they carried out online training for more than 3,000 law enforcement and case-handling police officers in the city, interpreting the "Guidelines". Opinions" and "Solutions" two systems.
In addition, since August last year, Jinhua City Procuratorate has also taken the lead in carrying out the pilot work of "full coverage of lawyers' defense in the review and prosecution stage" in Zhejiang Province in conjunction with the Municipal Bureau of Justice, the Lawyers Association and other units, and jointly formulated the "Full Coverage of Lawyers' Defense in the Review and Prosecution Phase". The Pilot Work Plan" (hereinafter referred to as the "Work Plan") further stimulates the potential and efficacy of the leniency system for admitting guilt and accepting punishment. With the implementation of the "leniency" policy, the proportion of no arrests and no prosecutions has been continuously increased.
"We attach great importance to the implementation of new concepts and policies of criminal justice, and hope to combine policies and defense work." At the procuratorial symposium organized by the Jinhua City Procuratorate, Lu Jincai, vice president of the Jinhua Lawyers Association, discussed the "Work Plan". "Implementation to express views.
The "big head" of the caseload is at the grassroots level.
In order to promote the implementation of the concept of fewer arrests, prudent prosecutions and prudent custody from a deeper level and a wider field, the nine grass-roots procuratorates in Jinhua City have strengthened the cooperation and cooperation of the public security, courts, judiciary, lawyers associations and relevant administrative agencies in light of local conditions.
For example, Wucheng, Lanxi, Yongkang, Pujiang, Wuyi and other institutes have formulated specific implementation rules and comprehensively rolled out various tasks.
According to Ren Sheng, President of the Criminal Division of the People's Court of Wuyi County, his court convened all members of the Criminal Division to study the relevant systems and mechanisms, and conducted in-depth discussions with the procuratorial organs on the application of non-custodial compulsory measures in similar cases, so as to be lenient and strict. Strict, lenient and strict.
In addition to strengthening communication and coordination with external units, the internal supervision and restriction of no arrest and no prosecution is also essential.
Fu Xinmin, deputy chief procurator of Jinhua City Procuratorate, said: "We have issued the "Measures for the Prevention and Control of Risks of Integrity in Criminal Procuratorial Affairs (Trial)", which clearly stipulates the right of prosecutors not to arrest and not prosecute and the approval procedures, which improves the application of prosecutors. The enthusiasm of arresting and not prosecuting can also objectively prevent prosecutors from exercising the right of not arresting and not prosecuting, which is prone to high-incidence and integrity risks."
Check the quality of the case
Try not to arrest as much as possible
"Procuratorial organs implement the judicial concept of fewer arrests, careful prosecution and careful detention. First of all, they must assume the leading responsibility in criminal proceedings." In a "Three Talks" event hosted by the Zhejiang Provincial Procuratorate, the Zhejiang Provincial Procuratorate Chief Prosecutor Jia Yu made this point.
One of the responsibilities is to control the quality of the cases.
Wang Minyuan, a professor at the Guanghua Law School of Zhejiang University, believes that the quality threshold includes not only legal quality such as factual evidence, but also careful prosecution.
If the case does not meet the quality standards, it cannot be prosecuted, and even if it meets the statutory prosecution standards, if the case may or may not be prosecuted, it should not be brought to the court.
As for whether to take criminal coercive measures, it can be decided by the investigative organs and procuratorial organs according to the circumstances, and if possible, try not to arrest them.
A vivid case in which the Jinhua procuratorate actively played a leading role in criminal proceedings and accurately guided the investigation was a series of extraordinarily large telecommunications network fraud cases handled last year.
The case involved 392 criminal suspects. The Jinhua City Procuratorate organized the city's elite criminal inspection forces to intervene in advance and accurately guide the direction of investigation and evidence collection, unify the arrest standards in a timely manner, and actively build a platform for confession and compensation.
Up to now, a total of 331 defendants have been prosecuted, of which 304 voluntarily applied the leniency system of plead guilty and accepted punishment, and 105 were changed to compulsory measures by the public security or after the procuratorial organ conducted a review of the necessity of detention, and the procuratorial process recovered more than 4.2 million yuan of illicit money. .
The Wucheng District People's Procuratorate has researched and produced a "yellow, orange and green" three-color code catalog to clarify the applicable conditions for non-custodial litigation, the scope of cases and the reporting standards for similar cases, which are convenient for public security police and prosecutors to handle cases and effectively reduce the rate of arrests. and pre-trial detention rates.
What is the three-color code?
That is to say, for those who may be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of less than three years in green, the public security organs will directly release them on bail pending trial; for serious crimes with statutory sentences of less than three years in prison, the public security organs can report for arrest, but the reasons for the arrest should be fully demonstrated; Cases with a sentence of less than five years in prison are marked in yellow, and after the public security organ makes an arrest report, if the criminal suspect pleads guilty and accepts punishment, the prosecutor may convict him and not arrest him after review.
It is understood that after the Wucheng District Procuratorate implemented this innovative measure, the pre-litigation detention rate dropped to 24.7%, the lowest in Jinhua City.
The experience of the People's Procuratorate of Pujiang County is that it intervenes in advance in every case of duty-related crime, strictly examines the facts and evidence, and jointly with the supervision department issued the "Opinions on the Application of the leniency system for admitting guilt and accepting punishment in handling cases transferred by the Supervision Commission for prosecution (for trial implementation)" to further Improve and smooth the supervisory inspection connection mechanism.
Through the "pre-litigation anti-corruption conference" of supervision, procuratorate and law, the role of procuratorial functions has been brought into play, and the application rate of the leniency system for confessing guilt and punishment for duty-related crimes has been promoted.
According to Liu Hongming, director of the Second Procuratorate of the Pujiang County Procuratorate, in 2021, the court will handle 6 cases of duty-related crimes and 10 people, and 8 people will be eligible to plead guilty and accept punishment, and the applicable ratio will reach 80%.
Push for a review of the necessity of detention
Build a compensation bond system
Arrests must never be made overnight, and the state of custody is not static.
Since June last year, the Jinhua City Procuratorate has organized special activities to review the necessity of detention in combination with the implementation of the "Guiding Opinions" and other systems.
The data shows that as of November 30, 2021, Jinhua City has carried out a total of 1,681 detention necessity reviews in the investigation, review and prosecution, and trial stages, and 362 people are recommended to be changed or released.
In addition to the three types of detentions currently in progress, "the statutory sentence is fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years", "crimes involving the operation of private enterprises", and "criminal suspects, defendants and their legal representatives, close relatives or defenders filing applications for review of the necessity of detention" In addition to the review of the case, the Wuyi County People's Procuratorate also requires that all criminal suspects arrested and detained during the review and prosecution stage should be reviewed for the necessity of detention before prosecution.
The Dongyang City People's Procuratorate quantified and quantified the assessment responsibilities of the post prosecutors, and made it clear that the whole process of tracking and evaluating the necessity of detention in each link such as early intervention, review for arrest, post-arrest, pre-trial, and review for prosecution was conducted through public hearings and "uncle Hengdian." "Relying on platform mediation, it can effectively avoid one arrest and one bet to the end.
"In the past, when we encountered difficult parties, we were always afraid. After the deposit was paid in advance, we avoided one party's asking price or the long-term delay of disputes." "It is a "sharp weapon" to solve the problem that criminal suspects voluntarily admit guilt and accept punishment, but there is a dispute with the victim in civil compensation, and it is difficult to advance non-custodial litigation. It is also an important supporting mechanism for the review of the necessity of detention.
The above-mentioned person in charge further explained the specific operation mode of the "compensation bond system", that is, the suspect in a minor criminal case has the willingness and ability to make compensation, but the appeal of the victim or his legal representative or close relative has not been satisfied, or The two parties failed to reach a settlement agreement due to the intensification of conflicts between the two parties. After the criminal suspect voluntarily expressed his willingness to pay compensation and deposited a certain amount of compensation bond with the notary public, he made a decision not to approve the arrest, changed it to a non-custodial compulsory measure, and made a relatively non-custodial decision. A case-handling system for prosecuting or recommending a suspended sentence.
Promote the perfection of execution
Do a good job in the follow-up article of the case
It is also very important to promote the improvement of "execution connection" and do a good job in the second half of the article.
The Pujiang County Procuratorate has researched and formulated detailed and applicable benchmarks for 27 common and frequently-occurring crimes such as intentional injury and traffic accidents, and jointly issued relevant institutional documents with the public security organs to effectively promote fewer arrests, careful prosecution, and careful detention.
At the same time, the hospital also pays attention to strengthening the communication and connection with relevant administrative departments.
The Pujiang County Procuratorate's case of suspected counterfeiting of a registered trademark by Pan made a deep impression on the reporter.
"From a purely legal point of view, Pan fits the circumstances that should be arrested. However, after a preliminary review, we found that the company involved is very special. Based on the social effect of handling the case, it is indeed necessary to change the compulsory measures." The case undertaker introduced, Pan is the factory manager of a lock factory in a provincial-level poverty-stricken village in a town in Guizhou Province. In order to achieve the best results in handling the case, the court invited representatives of the National People's Congress, lawyers and government departments where the companies involved in the case are located to participate in the public hearing on the necessity of detention. In the end, the hearing officers agreed with the decision of the procuratorate to convict Pan and not arrest him.
The procuratorate's change of compulsory measures on Pan saved the jobs of more than 100 workers in the poverty alleviation workshop. This decision greatly touched Pan.
According to Liu Yi, director of the government office of a town in Zunyi City, Guizhou Province, Pan began to pay attention to trademark protection after returning from Zhejiang, and strived to build its own brand to enhance the overall competitiveness of the company. It also drove the surrounding logistics and local lock accessories suppliers in Pujiang. cyclical development.
Data show that the Pujiang County Procuratorate’s pre-trial detention rate decreased by 15.15 percentage points last year, and was identified by the Zhejiang Provincial Procuratorate as the only innovative pilot unit in Jinhua City to “reduce the pre-trial detention rate”.
The Yongkang People's Procuratorate also actively explored the second half of the article.
In January 2021, the court accepted a series of cross-border gambling cases involving 154 people.
By making non-arrest decisions for the first batch of cases transferred for review and arrest with relatively minor circumstances, the public security organs were guided to actively apply non-custodial measures in subsequent cases. In this series of cases, 148 people were released on bail pending trial during the investigation stage, and the pre-trial detention rate was only 3.89%.
"In handling this series of cases, we will resolutely take strict measures against casino brokers, smuggled transporters and other persons involved in the case, who are more harmful to society, as well as those with serious circumstances, such as those who refuse to admit their guilt, such as those with minor circumstances but multiple criminal records, etc. For those who do not prosecute, they will proactively issue procuratorial opinions to the public security organs, requesting administrative penalties to be imposed on the 42 who are not prosecuted, or setting up a black and white list to strengthen the management and control of key personnel. Huang Jian, director of the First Procuratorate of the Yongkang City Procuratorate, said.
In order to prevent the recurrence of such cases and achieve the educational effect of popularizing the law by case, the court also publicly announced some of the decision not to prosecute, to popularize the law and admonish those who do not prosecute, and use WeChat and other media to publicize the city's gambling personnel. Play a good judicial deterrent and educational warning purposes.
With the successive introduction of a series of systems and mechanisms, and the in-depth integration of various links, fields and subjects of criminal justice, Jinhua procuratorate has entered the fast lane of improving quality and efficiency in promoting the reform of fewer arrests, careful prosecution and prudence.
Comics/Li Xiaojun