By Xinhua Writer Li Huizi
YINCHUAN, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- A senior Chinese prosecutor has called for improvements to the criminal evidence system to prevent miscarriages of justice.
Deputy Chief Prosecutor Zhu Xiaoqing of the Supreme People's Procuratorate told a seminar in Yinchuan, capital of northwestern Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, on Wednesday that serious lapses in court cases in recent years had mainly been caused by coercion during interrogation, which was also a result of a weak evidence system.
"Judiciary authorities should consider improving the evidence system to curb coerced confession by torture," he was quoted by Thursday's Procuratorial Daily as saying.
Zhu suggested wider use of synchronized audio and video recording during interrogation, especially in serious homicide or criminal cases, such as rapes.
Currently, most Chinese prosecuting authorities use audio and video recording while interrogating suspects on charges of corruption or work-related crimes. The practice started in 2006.
Zhu said authorities should also consider allowing lawyers to watch interrogations with no access to audio, in an effort to supervise prosecutors and prevent torture.
"Evidence is the core of proceedings," he said.
Casework should be based on fact and law, and facts could only be obtained through evidence.
He said the occurrence of spurious cases came about because of incorrect methods of obtaining and reviewing evidence and judgment.
"It is very important to carry out exhaustive evidence procedure in dealing with serious criminal cases, especially corruption," he said.
However, Zhu said, it was very hard to obtain evidence in graft cases, as verbal evidence, the major evidence source in such cases, was "unstable and could be controlled", which caused difficulties in investigation.
He said other countries' experiences, such as the obtaining of mandatory evidence, and technical or secret criminal investigation methods, which were rights invested in judicial authorities, provided reference points for China to improve its own evidence system.
Judicial authorities should supervise other agencies' evidence-collecting activities and immediately investigate if they suspected any coerced confession or torture, he said.
Several criminal cases based on coerced evidence have occurred in China in recent years.
The most recent one that made headline in newspapers was a rape-and-murder case in 1996 in which an innocent man, Hugejiletu, was wrongly executed in Hohhot, capital of north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Another man who confessed to the murder in 2005 is still in jail awaiting trial, the Beijing News reported Wednesday.
The case of She Xianglin, who was wrongly jailed for 11 years for a murder that never happened, was covered extensively by China's media.
The former security guard from central China's Hubei Province was convicted on the basis of his confession of killing his wife, despite the fact that her body was never found.
He said he was deprived of sleep during 10 days of interrogation until he signed documents pleading guilty to murder.
He was finally cleared in 2005 after his "dead" wife reappeared in her hometown. The government awarded She almost 500,000 yuan (61,880 U.S. dollars at that time) in compensation.
In another case, Nie Shubin, a young farmer in North China's Hebei Province, was executed in 1994 after being convicted of raping and murdering a woman.
However, a rape-and-murder suspect arrested in 2005 confessed he had committed the crime. The real killer was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve.