On the 23rd, the defendant was being sentenced.
On May 23rd, the gavel sounded. Liu Han, Liu Wei and other 36 people involved in the crime were sentenced in Xianning first instance.
"The facts are clear, the sentence is accurate, and it is punished as a crime." Many people in the judicial circles who are concerned about the trial of this case believe that the whole process of the first instance embodies the law, solemnity and order, which can be called the "boutique" of judicial practice.
The success of the trial embodies the wisdom and hard work of the police officers on the political and legal fronts, and reflects their superb ability to perform their duties and enforce the law.
Fine preparation
Be sure
Since the case of Liu Han and Liu Wei involved in the underworld, it has attracted great attention from all walks of life. In order to make the case a ironclad case that can stand the test of history, the public, procuratorial and legal staff involved in the case made careful preparations, held their ground and took responsibility to ensure foolproof.
Since May 2013, more than 100 police officers from Hubei Task Force have gone to Sichuan to carry out investigations around the clock, traveled to more than 10 provinces and cities, traveled hundreds of thousands of kilometers, asked more than 600 people, obtained more than 1,000 witness testimonies and collected more than 10,000 relevant materials.
The prosecution war started, and the public prosecution organ adhered to the bottom line of public prosecution that formed a complete chain of evidence. On the eve of the prosecution of the case, the case handlers were still reviewing and printing the indictment overnight. The 128-page indictment with more than 76,000 words has been revised in 46 drafts.
In addition, the public prosecution agency has also produced more than 4 million words of marking transcripts and more than 2,850 pages of trial plans. Before the trial, the public prosecutor standardized the trial plan according to four modules: interrogation, proof, cross-examination, defense viewpoint prediction and defense, and made a total of seven trial plans with more than 2,850 pages, including 170,000 words for Liu Han and Liu Wei. We sorted out 49 common problems in the procedure or cross-examination of triad-related cases, analyzed and summarized more than 110 defense opinions and defense opinions of triad-related cases, and adjusted the trial plan 18 times successively.
On February 20th, Xianning Municipal People’s Procuratorate sued the case to Xianning Intermediate People’s Court in seven cases.
Xianning Intermediate People’s Court deployed elite soldiers to form seven collegiate panels with 21 people, as well as 21 clerks and stenographers. The 14 working groups responsible for security inspection, auditing and reception guidance are in their respective positions and have their own responsibilities. There are many files, tight time and heavy tasks, and the case handlers are determined to brave the difficulties.
On February 25th, the Provincial Public Security Department arranged a deputy director to lead a special supervision class composed of the heads of public security, security and network security departments, and stationed in Xianning in advance to refine the security tasks of the trial.
This special class, together with the special class of Xianning Public Security Bureau, went deep into the scene, made on-the-spot investigation and repeated research, and worked out the overall security plan for the court trial site, the surrounding court, the escort route and the street control, and refined the security tasks, and worked out various sub-plans in different departments, stages, levels and regions to ensure "fixed personnel, posts and responsibilities".
Security inspection is the key point in court trial security work. The Provincial Public Security Department specially dispatched the Wuhan Public Security Bureau’s security inspection and explosive disposal brigade to conduct strict security inspections on five courts, seven courts and 36 prison cars, and found and eliminated potential safety hazards. During the trial, 500 special police officers and 18 sets of security inspection, explosive search and disposal equipment were deployed from 6 cities and states in the province to reinforce Xianning. In the security work, the police invested more than 3,000 police officers, dispatched more than 2,800 vehicles, and called 1,890 sets of explosion-proof protection, security inspection and explosive removal equipment.
Substantive justice
Pay equal attention to procedural justice
"Please ask the bailiff to bring another suspect, Sun Moumou, to court." At 8: 36 on April 12, in the trial court of Xianning Intermediate People’s Court, the voice of the presiding judge just fell, and a middle-aged man in a wheelchair was brought into court by the bailiff. His face is sallow and he can’t stop coughing. He looks very weak.
Both the prosecution and the defense and the defendant Liu Han interrogated and asked Sun Moumou respectively. Sun moumou has clear thinking, slow speech and determined words. His testimony in court completely linked the evidence chain of Liu Han’s instigation to shoot Wang Yongcheng, locked Liu Han’s position as the mastermind and chief offender, and further proved that Liu Han was the organizer and leader of the underworld organization.
Previously, it was found by the court that Sun was hospitalized for illness and was inconvenient to appear in court. However, Liu Han and his defenders still insist that Sun Moumou must appear in court. The prosecutor also believes that if Sun Moumou himself can appear in court, it will help to find out the facts. In order to ensure that the case can stand the test of law and history, leaving no regrets and sequelae, the political and legal organs overcame many difficulties and formulated careful safeguard measures to win the appearance of Sun Moumou, who was detained in Beijing for another case.
The political and legal organs of our province insist on paying equal attention to substantive justice and procedural justice, overcoming difficulties and tackling difficulties, and embodying confidence and determination in every link of detection, prosecution and trial-
In order to ensure the legality of the evidence and form a legal evidence chain, the public security organs deployed four business backbones to work independently in parallel with the special case-handling class, to examine the details of the case, clarify the defects of the evidence, find the defects in the case, and correct them in time, so as to achieve "the case does not leak people, people do not leak crimes, and crimes do not leak evidence".
The procuratorial organs supervised according to law, and put forward more than 1,000 supplementary investigation opinions and more than 890 written inspection opinions to the investigation organs. At the same time, investigate and review the key evidence to eliminate reasonable doubts. In the case of arrest reported by the public security organ, 6 people were not allowed to be arrested, and 8 people were not accepted. In the process of review and prosecution, those who did not constitute a crime were not recognized according to law.
During the trial, according to the application of both the prosecution and the defense and the specific case, the collegiate bench constantly adjusted the trial agenda, invited new witnesses to appear in court, and the collegiate bench gave cross-evidence. In the case of Liu Han, the suspects Sun Moumou and Yang Xue and the defendant Liu Wei were added to appear in court, and the defendants Liu Xuejun, Liu Zhongwei and Lv Bin were added to the case of Liu Wei. At the request of the defender, the "Er Liu" case showed the black bullets three times and handed them over to the defendant for identification.
Punish crime
Unification with the protection of human rights
From March 31st to April 19th, at the trial site, Liu Han missed every opportunity to speak. "I don’t know this person", "I don’t know this matter" and "It has nothing to do with me" … Liu Han often talks about these accusations.
At the scene of the trial, he played "sad cards", "good cards" and "hypocritical cards" to gain sympathy. In this regard, the presiding judge rope Wanxun repeatedly sounded the gavel to remind him to pay attention to emotions and wording, so as to smoothly and orderly advance the trial process.
Among the 36 defendants, most of them are junior high school students and lack language skills. At the scene of the first trial court of Xian ‘an District People’s Court in Xianning City, the defendants Yuan Shaolin and Zhang Donghua raised their hands several times in the process of giving evidence and cross-examination, but they were incoherent when they opened their mouths. Wang Weimin, the presiding judge, always guided patiently and clarified or implemented the facts advocated by the parties by asking questions. In this regard, many defendants thanked in court.
During the trial, both the prosecution and the defense debated many times, and the seven presiding judges were able to assess the situation, combining rigidity with softness, and interpreted the people’s judges’ judicial literacy of strict law enforcement, fair trial and tolerance with neutral, modest and rational words and deeds. Under the education, influence and deterrence of the court, most defendants pleaded guilty and repented in court, and expressed their remorse to the relatives of the victims.
Control the trial and highlight the judicial authority; Safeguard human rights and show judicial care.
In the pre-trial stage, in view of the defendant Liu Wei’s poor confession attitude and lack of legal concept, the pre-trial experts influenced him with legal thinking through family influence and persuasion education, and took him to understand the law and reflect. Later, Liu Wei told the police of the task force, "I have nothing to say. I also recognize that you sentenced me to death in this case."
In the stage of inspection and prosecution, the procuratorate contacted the judicial administrative department in time and appointed eight defense lawyers for many defendants who did not entrust defense lawyers for various reasons. When collecting evidence, it not only consolidates and reinforces the guilty evidence, but also collects the evidence that the crime is lighter, so as to fully protect the defendant’s litigation rights. Open up a green channel for lawyers to receive lawyers, receive lawyers for more than 200 times, and provide nearly 500G of electronic case files.
At the trial stage, the defendant did not shave his head, wear prison clothes or wear equipment; In the process of escorting and guarding the defendants personally, the bailiff on duty should use civilized language and behave appropriately and strictly, and wear wrist guards and ankle guards for all defendants to avoid scratches; During the trial, according to the physical condition of the defendant Liu Han, he was equipped with two sets of hearing AIDS and a soft cushion was prepared on his seat; When waiting for the court, hand a cigarette and a glass of water to the defendant with great emotional fluctuation in time to stabilize the defendant’s mood. At the same time, arrange professional medical personnel to wait outside the court to provide timely physical examination and medical diagnosis for the defendant and defender.
In this regard, many netizens praised in various posts: "The organic unity of punishing crimes and protecting human rights is the embodiment of the progress of judicial civilization."
Expert interpretation
Should Liu Han be executed for his crime?
On the 23rd, 36 people, including Liu Han and Liu Wei, were sentenced in the first instance. Defendant Liu Han committed crimes such as organizing and leading underworld organizations and intentional homicide, and was sentenced to death, deprived of political rights for life, and confiscated all his personal property. As the organizer and leader of the underworld criminal group, should Liu Han be put to death? Yesterday, our reporter interviewed Liu Zhixiong, a professor at the Law School of South-Central University for Nationalities and vice president of Hubei Criminal Law Research Association.
Reporter: What is the basis for the court of first instance to sentence Liu Han to death?
Liu Zhixiong: The court sentenced Liu Han to death on the basis of his intentional homicide. After trial, the court found that Liu Han’s behavior constituted 13 kinds of crimes, among which, he was sentenced to death for intentional homicide and deprived of his political rights for life. According to the provisions of the Criminal Law on combined punishment for several crimes, he decided to execute the death penalty, and the main punishments sentenced for other crimes were no longer executed.
There are two main legal grounds for Liu Han’s death sentence: first, the death penalty for intentional homicide in Article 232 of the Specific Provisions of the Criminal Law; Second, Article 48 of the General Principles of Criminal Law stipulates that the death penalty is only applicable to criminals with extremely serious crimes. Judging from the facts ascertained by the court, Liu Han instigated, condoned and recognized five crimes of intentional homicide committed by members of underworld organizations led by his organization, resulting in six deaths. His means were cruel, his subjective malignancy was extremely deep, and his social impact was extremely bad. It can be said that the crime was extremely serious and he should be sentenced to death according to law.
Reporter: In five cases of intentional homicide, Liu Han didn’t directly commit crimes, and even in some cases, he didn’t directly organize crimes. Why did the court hold him criminally responsible for five cases of intentional homicide?
Liu Zhixiong: Judging from the facts identified by the court, in two of the five cases of intentional homicide, Liu Han had a clear intention to kill his men, and it was not a problem to identify him as a criminal organizer of intentional homicide. In the other three cases, although Liu Han did not directly organize and carry out the murder, Liu Han, as the ringleader of the criminal group, should be punished according to all the crimes committed by the group, which is clearly stipulated in Article 26 of the Criminal Law. According to the facts identified in the judgment and the provisions of the law, Liu Han has constituted the crime of organizing and leading an underworld organization. The underworld organization belongs to a criminal group in criminal law, and Liu Han belongs to the ringleader of the criminal group. He bears criminal responsibility for all the crimes committed by the group, which is in line with the express provisions of the criminal law and the basic principles of criminal law. Therefore, it is not a problem to take the other three cases of intentional homicide committed by the group as the basis for punishing Liu Han.
Reporter: There are many perpetrators involved in the five murders. If the responsibility for the criminal harm is decomposed into various criminals, does it mean that some of them are sentenced to death?
Liu Zhixiong: The characteristic of joint crime is that the actions of the joint criminals involved in the crime constitute a whole. Although each person’s specific division of labor is different, and each person only plays a part in it, it is the behavior of each participant that forms an interconnected whole and jointly becomes the cause of harmful results. This means that every member should be responsible for the result of the crime. This is the meaning of "partial behavior, full responsibility" in criminal law theory, that is to say, even if you only carry out part of the behavior, you are still responsible for the harmful results of the whole joint crime. Therefore, in joint crime, the responsibility for the result is not divided into individual persons, but the responsibility for the result of the whole joint crime is assumed according to the role played by the joint offender. That is to say, Liu Han can’t reduce his responsibility for the harmful results because there are many people involved in the murder. On the contrary, the greater the number of participants, the greater the threat it poses to the legitimate rights and interests. Moreover, as the ringleader of the criminal group, Liu Han plays the most important role in the whole joint crime, and it is natural to assume the most important responsibility.
Therefore, judging from the facts identified by the court of first instance, it is appropriate to sentence Liu Han to death. Of course, this is based on the judgment of the first instance. Liu Han also has the right to appeal. The appeal will be conducted in the second instance, and there will be a death penalty review procedure after the second instance. If mistakes in fact finding or law application are found in the second instance and the death penalty review procedure, that is another matter.
