Mo Jihong: The Objectives of Judicial Reform Are Being Realized in a Step-by-Step Way

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Statistics show that, since 2013, China has rectified 34 major cases of miscarriage of justice and declared more than 3,700 defendants not guilty, thereby safeguarding the right of innocent people not to be subjected to criminal prosecution. Meanwhile, a new round of judicial reform has been carried out and continuously deepened, judicial principles such as legally prescribed punishment for a specified crime, in dubio pro reo, and exclusion of illegal evidence have been implemented and a mechanisms for the prevention and correction of unjust, framed up and wrong cases have been gradually formed. The people can increasingly feel that the government has determined to advance judicial fairness and that the Chinese society is become more fair and just as a result of judicial reform. In February 2017, the Supreme People’s Court issued the opinions on the implementation of the reform of the criminal procedure, which advance in an all-round way the trial-centered reform of the criminal procedure system, with a view to ensuring that all those who are guilty of a crime are punished fairly, and all those who are innocent are not subjected to criminal prosecution. It has been proved that the practices of extorting a confession by torture and illegal obtaining evidence are the main causes of unjust, framed-up and wrong cases in China. In June 2017, the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, and the Ministry of Public Security jointly issued the Provisions on the Several Issues concerning the Strict Exclusion of the Illegally Collected Evidence in the Handling of Criminal Cases, which clearly exclude evidences obtained by torture, threat and other illegal means. Professor Mo Jihong, Deputy Director of CASS Law Institute, pointed out in an interview by CRI Online that the adoption of the above-mentioned reform measures enable the people to see that the objectives of judicial reform are being realized in a step-by-step way: “In-depth judicial reform includes the reform of judicial administrative system, the judicial trial system, and the system of judicial openness, as well as the improvement the criteria of judicial judgment, including evidence standards. Therefore, it can be said that the rectification of a series of major cases of miscarriage of justice, including the Case of Nie Shubin and the Case of Chen Man, are the results of review of past cases in strict accordance with the principle of the rule of law and the principle of safeguarding of human rights as well as the achievements made by trial organs in the process of deepening the judicial reform in accordance with the principle of seeking truth from fact.”