Chapter 357 Presumption of Innocence Act

The first and second points I just mentioned are easy to understand for experienced criminal investigation experts such as Song Chengzu, but for the third point, the principle of law enforcement, all the officials in the hall are quite surprised, including Song Chengzu, Chen Zongli and other judicial experts.

Of course, under the protection of this law, those criminals who really break the law are likely to escape the punishment of the law, and justice has not been served here, but if a good person is wronged because of this, then the harm suffered by justice here will be twofold, the victim and the wronged,

Seeing that everyone was puzzled, I explained: "The real criminal who has been spared is likely to commit another crime and cause new harm to society, but the duty entrusted by the law to judicial officials can only be to punish those who have evidence to prove that they are indeed violating the law, and cannot punish those who may have violated the law. The best way for you, as the highest official of our law enforcement agency, to make a difference in your present position without making mistakes, is to respect everyone who is protected by the law, no matter how high or low his status and property, whether he is noble or low, as long as he is a person of the Great Song Dynasty, he should enjoy the right to be protected by the law, and this view should not only be instilled in you, but also instilled in your subordinates, and in all relevant officials. ”

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"Okay, I move on to the fourth point, and before I talk about that, I ask you, at the beginning of people, is the surname good or the surname is evil."

"Benshan."

"Benshan."

"Evil."

"It's a bit of both."

"There is neither good nor evil."

A variety of different statements are intertwined, but relatively speaking, there are more people who answer the surname Benshan.

I stretched out my hand to signal everyone to be quiet: "The purpose of asking you this question is not to discuss a correct answer to the question itself, but to make a fundamental change in the current way of thinking about the case, dear Aiqing, the ancients Confucius once said that the good and evil of the people do not lie in the people themselves, but in the ruling class, I have also heard a small story, similar to the meaning of Kongqiu, it is said that in a certain dynasty, when the emperor went out for a private visit, he met a beggar, and asked, 'Why are there so many beggars now?' The beggar did not know the identity of the emperorI quote the words of Confucius and the words of the beggars to explain the reasons why the people form good and evil, and the good and evil of the people are to a large extent reflected the good and evil of officialdom, and I use the presumption of guilt in the current judicial system, and I hope to gradually transition the judicial consciousness from the existing presumption of guilt to the presumption of innocence, which is the fourth proposal I mentioned. ”

Chen Zongli, the secretary of the Criminal Department, said: "Your Majesty, since ancient times, law enforcement departments have used the presumption of guilt method, what is the purpose of the presumption of innocence method that Your Majesty said. ”

"The presumption of guilt is based on the original evil of the surname, and the presumption of innocence is based on the goodness of the surname, which is the purpose of asking everyone about the good and evil of the surname of the person above, I will give you another example, if a family goes to the yamen to complain, saying that you stole one of their chickens last night, then the two presumptions will have different trial processes, when the presumption of guilt is adopted, the county government presupposes that you have indeed committed the crime of stealing chickens, unless you can prove that you cannot steal chickens, for example, Widow Li in the next village cried and shouted to help you prove that you actually drank at her house until the early hours of the morning last night, and you didn't have the time to commit the crime, so that you are not guilty, and the presumption of innocence, the county lord presupposes your innocence, unless he can find evidence that you really stole chickens, for example, Widow Li in the next village said that you inexplicably invited her to eat chicken last night, and the official turned out chicken bones from your trash can, and you didn't buy chickens at all, everyone, can you hear the difference. ”

Wen Tianxiang said: "Your Majesty, the presumption of innocence is adopted, which means that if the government cannot find evidence, it cannot conclude that he is guilty. ”

Song Chengzu also said: "Your Majesty's intention is to say that the adoption of the presumption of innocence method is based on the goodness of the person's surname, and its purpose is to avoid the case of good people being wronged. ”

"Yes, that's what I mean, the third and fourth points are related, about these two points, the relevant personnel think first, this is a change in the ideology of the criminal law, and it is the embodiment of my advocacy of the supremacy of surnames, but it can't be reversed at once, Chen Zongli, Song Chengzu, your criminal department and Dali Temple, the Law Department will discuss together, and then play it on me."

"Yes, Your Majesty, your ministers obey."

"Now I will talk about the fifth and final point, and this last point is that I intend to establish a jury system."

"Jury, what is this?"

"Dear Aiqing, since the law cannot cover everything, there may be gaps in many areas, and the understanding of the details of the law will vary from person to person, so I propose to try out the jury system where possible, and the jury I mean is composed of people with representative surnames and no bad deeds selected from among the local people, and the jurors are read outside the government, outside the judicial system, and outside any political power. It is the judgment that the general public will make under the provisions of the law on the jury, and the jury system has two major advantages, one is that for the gaps in the law, public opinion can be widely heard, but it is to supervise the process of the government's judgment of cases, and curb the government's [***] and reading talents. ”

There are pros and cons to the jury system, and I think it's okay to try, at least it can make the local government feel uneasy.

I continued: "Let me give you another example, for example, when Lin'an Mansion is trying a case, there will be jury members on the side, depending on the size of the case, there can be different numbers of jury members, because these juries have nothing to do with the people of the case, so they will look at the process of adjudicating the case in Lin'an Mansion from the perspective of neutrals, if all the jury members think that there is a problem with the sentence in Lin'an Province, then it may mean that first, there is a problem in Lin'an Province, and second, there is a problem with the existing law, if this happens, The more times the same problem arises, the more the problem of the law can be seen, and then the law department should re-examine whether the law regulations need to be amended. ”

Wen Tianxiang said: "Your Majesty's proposal is quite novel, and the minister thinks that he can give it a try, at least to supervise the government's trial." ”

Chen Zongli said: "The minister seconded the proposal, it's just how to choose the members of the jury." ”

"The members of the jury, first of all, must live in the local area, secondly, they must be adults and have the ability to read and judge affairs, thirdly, they must be fair and must not have bad records, and fourthly, they must have a common surname, for example, in this Lin'an City, there must be representatives of handicrafts, commerce, townspeople, scholars and other people of different professions, and fifth, you can also think about it."

"The minister has his own music." The prefect of Lin'an said that his friends came out of the line,

"Qian Aiqing, please speak."

"Your Majesty, the minister is willing to carry out a pilot in Lin'an Mansion."

I praised: "Okay, this matter will be handed over to the Government Council, the Criminal Department and the Lin'an Government to jointly discuss and formulate a feasible plan." ”

"Yes, Your Majesty, your ministers obey."

"Alright, retreat."

Wudang Martial Arts Hall is located about ten meters behind the Red Cross, where it is also one of the real estate of Shifeng Commercial Bank, the purpose of the martial arts hall is to strengthen the body, as it is written in front of its gate, "strengthen the body, promote the prestige of my Great Song Dynasty, work hard, and wash the shame of Jingkang." ”

In the upper right corner of the horizontal plaque of the martial arts hall, there is a mighty lion, this pattern is very familiar to the people of Lin'an, because this lion is the unique symbol of the Shifeng Commercial Bank, every household is using the monosodium glutamate packaging has this pattern, there is also a horizontal plaque on the Tongle Building, Wudang Wuguan is also one of the industries of the Shifeng, the people who came to watch the unveiling ceremony knew the origin of the martial arts hall as soon as they saw this pattern,

There are a lot of rumors about the Shifeng Commercial Bank, and the more it spreads, the more God, but overall, the people of Lin'an City still have a very high evaluation of the Shifeng, the reason is only one point, the big shopkeeper of the Shifeng Commercial Bank Xiao Tian said that the items produced by the Shifeng Commercial Bank, which are closely related to the lives of the people, will not increase the price at will, MSG is its representative, since the listing, although the supply exceeds demand, but the price has been reduced twice in a row,

Although the people are not clear about the role of the martial arts hall, but in the name of the lion peak, there are a lot of onlookers, the notice of the martial arts hall is written simply and clearly, in order to enhance the people's physique, the Wudang martial arts hall since its opening, free to teach the people who are willing to practice martial arts, regardless of age, regardless of gender, as long as they abide by the rules of the martial arts hall, they can come here to practice martial arts and strengthen their bodies,

With the assistance of the dragon's tooth personnel, the unveiling ceremony of the martial arts hall was impressive, and the ribbon-cutting ceremony was presided over by Lu Xiufu, the acting president of the Military Affairs Academy, which made it easy to think that there was a certain relationship between the martial arts hall and the imperial court.

"This is another charity, the emperor's measures are all for the people, they all say that the northerners are strong, the southerners are weak, if the physique of the people in the dynasty is improved, then I really shouldn't be afraid of the Mongols." Pu Shougeng, who attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony, thought, and secretly congratulated himself that he was with the right person.

When the ribbon-cutting ceremony was carried out, I got the news from the people of the dragon's tooth that Li Beiyang had returned to Lin'an and was in the Military Affairs Academy, so after the ceremony, I hurriedly came to the Military Affairs Institute with Yuan Jian, Xiao Qi and Lu Xiufu.

Li Beiyang left Lin'an for nearly half a year, and as soon as he saw me, he bowed down and said excitedly: "Minister Li Beiyang sees Your Majesty." ”

If it weren't for my promotion and appreciation, it is estimated that Li Beiyang would have spent his life in obscurity, and he would not have had the opportunity to establish more merits than his ancestor Li Bao.

"No courtesy, Li Aiqing, hard work."

"Thank you, Your Majesty." Li Beiyang got up and pointed to a middle-aged man behind him, "Your Majesty, this is Mr. Cai Changcai from the Ryukyu Islands, whose ancestral home is Penglai, and he is the first envoy of the Ryukyu Province elected by the minister, and I also ask Your Majesty to review and decide." ”

"From the Ryukyus."