NCJ Number
168859
Journal
Criminologist Volume: 21 Issue: 2 Dated: Summer 1997 Pages: 75-80
Date Published
1997
Length
6 pages
Annotation
This first part of a two-part article notes China's new law of criminal procedure and its improvement over the old law and then outlines the defects in the "old law" as regards the protection of human rights.
Abstract
Under the old law, suspects could be detained and investigated for months, never to be compensated. According to the old law, the state's obligation to provide the accused the right to defend himself was confined to the people's court. In criminal proceedings, the state was not obligated to ensure that the accused had every opportunity to defend himself properly. Under the old law, the accused was entitled to a defense attorney at trial, but during the investigation and prosecution stages, the accused could only rely on his own resourcefulness. Under the old law, judges received the facts of the case prior to trial, such that their opinions were formed in the initial stages of case processing; the defendant's defense at trial had little impact on these preformed judicial opinions. The old law allowed victims to charge perpetrators with crime; however, in public prosecutions, there were numerous problems with the protection of victims' rights, the most serious of which was failure to give victims the right to participate in proceedings. Part Two of this article will examine developments under the new criminal procedure law and will discuss defects still present in that law. 13 references