Recently, King&Capital Law Firm senior partner Mr. Zhang Yanfeng and Mr. Zheng Xuan received a death penalty review case decision letter represented by the two of them. At the last moment when the death penalty was imposed in the first trial and upheld in the second trial, the Supreme Court adopted the defense viewpoint of the lawyers and did not approve the death penalty, revoked the death penalty and deprivation of political rights for life in the original judgment, and remanded the case for retrial.

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Background

This case is a case of intentional homicide, the family found the lawyer, the case has made a first instance verdict.

The trial court found that: at the time of the crime, the person concerned held a blunt object and struck the victim's head more than ten times, causing the other party to die of open craniocerebral injury, which shows that the subjective intent of the murder is clear, and the means are extremely cruel; although the two had disputes due to the business problems, there is no evidence to confirm that the victim was at fault; the person concerned voluntarily surrendered himself after the crime, and his relatives expressed their willingness to compensate for the financial losses, but the collateral civil lawsuit Plaintiffs clearly indicated that they did not accept the terms of compensation. “The killing method is extremely cruel, the consequences are extremely serious, and the personal danger is extremely great, although there is the circumstance of surrender, but it is not enough to mitigate his punishment.”

On one side is a fresh life that has been lost, and on the other side is a client who has been sentenced to death, and the result of such a charge and determination is almost the worst start a defense lawyer can encounter. Death penalty cases concern the defendant's right to life, and once initiated will be irreversible. In order to make the punishment fit the crime and not to be incarcerated, the lawyer accepted the family's commission after careful consideration.

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After handling the case

The key to solving the problem lies in jumping out of the logic of conviction of the original judgment and reconstructing the facts involved with evidence. “Like walking on thin ice, like facing the abyss”, this is the lawyer accepts the commission of the inner portrayal.

Before the second trial, the lawyer went to the court in the first time to read the file and met with the parties, and at the same time in the local actively visit, to start interpersonal relationship investigation, from different perspectives on the contradiction between the two parties involved in the entanglement of the facts.

In the repeated reading and analysis, the lawyer from the time, space, two dimensions, the party's motive, purpose, means to analyze the cocoon. Through the search, submitted to the panel more than ten reference cases, academic views and relevant legal basis. For the evidence collection process is suspected of illegal problems put forward illegal evidence exclusion application. During the trial, the lawyer made detailed arguments, argued on the basis of reasoning, responded to each of the first instance judgment's finding of intentional murder, extremely cruel means, extremely serious consequences, great personal danger, no fault of the victim, although the self-surrender should not be mitigated, put forward a detailed rebuttal, and successfully initiated the exclusion of non-prosecution procedures, shook the conviction of the accusation system.

But unfortunately although it was already fighting with all its might, the Provincial High Court finally upheld the original verdict.

After the case into the death penalty review process, the client and his family because of the King&Capital lawyer's business level and the work attitude of the dedicated and responsible very recognized, so continue to entrust the agent. Lawyers carefully study the first and second instance of the judgment, the focus of the issue also wrote a written opinion, and at the same time, the death penalty review of the contractor judge, but also a number of times on the defense of the views of the telephone to elaborate.

In the end, the case lasted two years, the panel in accordance with the law, interrogated the defendant, listened to the defense counsel, reviewed the opinion of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, carefully considered the issues raised by the defense counsel, and thus the case will be sent back to the retrial.

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Case Summary

Looking back on the whole case of representation, in the face of the loss of life, the lawyer more than once that it should not have happened a tragedy. The purpose of the defense is never to promote violence or stimulate the traumatized hearts of the victim's family, but to seek a balance between law and humanity through the eyes of a legal person, shuttling between sensibility and rationality. We fear the law, not only because of its harshness and maintenance of order, but also because of its compassion and the light of humanity revealed behind the words of those regulations.

In the defense statement of the second trial, the lawyer wrote, “Before issuing a formal defense opinion, please allow us to express our condolences to the victim's relatives. Handling this type of case, the defender's heart is heavy, because no one has the right to deprive others of their lives except in the circumstances prescribed by law. But as a defender, the law must safeguard the appellant's legal rights and interests in accordance with the law, and we ask for your understanding on this point.”

The parties and their families are still expressing their willingness to do their best to compensate the victim's family. We also hope that the case will be able to obtain a relatively satisfactory answer next, both in and out of court, through the efforts and wisdom of all parties in the prosecution, defense and trial.