Xiao Jiading wants this, because "Yonghui Law" says "Those who are with it, minus five." "Flogging is the lightest punishment, and there are five punishments from 10 to 50 flogging. Now those who ask for money are only sentenced to 40 flogs of the fourth class, and then they are reduced by 5 degrees, which exceeds the lightest punishment of 10 flogs, and there is no need for punishment. In this way, even if Yushi and others investigate the case in the future, they will not find anything wrong.

This case has been solved like this, what should I do if I encounter a similar case in the future?

Xiao Jiading felt that it was a little tricky, so he could only take one step at a time.

However, this case has given Xiao Jiading a new problem. Because almost all the crimes involving the valuation of stolen goods in the Tang Law are calculated according to the standard of silk, and the price of silk varies so much across the country, the sentencing varies greatly with the change of the price of silk; As a result, sentencing standards are inconsistencies across the country, and the phenomenon of different sentences in the same case is certainly widespread. Therefore, there should be a provision for the valuation of stolen goods.

Xiao Jiading, who specializes in the study of legal history, knows that such regulations have been formulated twice in the Tang Dynasty. The first time was in the Kaiyuan period of Tang Xuanzong. The imperial court established a uniform price of silk for the conversion of stolen goods in the national sentencing, which was 550 wen per horse. At the end of the Tang Dynasty, during the Tang Xuanzong period, because of the chaos in the world, prices soared, so the price of silk also increased significantly. As a last resort, the imperial court once again unified the standard of silk for the valuation of stolen goods across the country. It is stipulated that each horse of silk is converted into 900 wen. And now in the Tang Dynasty, there are no such regulations.

He was going to tell Tang Lin about this matter at the appropriate time, and asked him to write to the imperial court to request a unified provision. His words should carry weight.

Xiao Jiading returned to the signing room, and then read the verdict. Several subsequent cases involved the valuation of stolen goods.

Because the torture room has already been confessed in the morning, the verdict will be submitted later, and the whole case must be transferred. So in the afternoon, all the case files that had been reported to Xiao Jiading and had not yet been sent to the Kang County Order for approval were sent over. Xiao Jiading began to read the case file.

Just watching, County Lieutenant Deng came in, with a smile on his face, holding a stack of files in his hand, and said, "Xiao Zhiyi!" ”

Xiao Jiading saw that it was him, and hurriedly got up and said, "County Lieutenant Deng, is there something wrong?" ”

"I'm here to bring you the case file."

"Oh, why did County Lieutenant Deng personally carry the file? Wasn't it sent by the scribe of the torture chamber? Hurry up, put it on the table. ”

County Lieutenant Deng put the file on Xiao Jiading's several cases, and said with a smile: "This case is very important, so after I read it, I personally sent it." ”

"Oh? What kind of case did County Lieutenant Deng personally send it? ”

"In a murder case, Kang County Ling once personally ascended to the court to hear the case, and reported it after being convicted, but the state capital Facao thought the case was suspicious, so he sent it back. A reconsideration is required. Judicial Xu and I have carefully reviewed this case, and we don't think there is anything suspicious, but since the state government law Cao has said that the case is suspicious, it must be properly reviewed. We looked at it again, but we didn't see anything that could be done. It's not good to ask where the state capital Facao is. Thinking that Xiao Zhiyi was strongly recommended by Tang Sima and was proficient in criminal law, so, I can only ask Xiao Zhiyi to see for yourself in this case, what is in doubt. ”

Xiao Jiading said: "You can't see it, where can I see it?" ”

That being said, Xiao Jiading still looked at it with interest. County Lieutenant Deng smiled and bowed his hand, "Then I'll leave." With that, he stepped out the door.

Xiao Jiading briefly looked at the verdict when he reported it last time, and the facts of the case were as follows: A woman surnamed Tong in Huangyan Village, this county, had her six-year-old son missing, so she searched everywhere. As a result, they found their son's clothes and pants in the river at the edge of their village, so they asked someone to fish them in the river, and they ended up with an arm! Tong recognized his son from the chain wrapped around the wrist of his arm, and went to the yamen to report to the official. The yamen officers searched the vicinity, and found another arm, as well as feet, and a torso cut in two from the waist, as well as internal organs such as stomach and intestines, and finally found the head of a child in the stinky ditch, which was identified as Tong's son. So he asked the whole village one by one, and some people said that he saw the child's uncle Zhao squatting in this stinky ditch that day, and he also said hello, and Tong also confirmed that he had seen Zhao fornicating with someone before, and Zhao should be angry and killed his child to vent his anger. So, the arrester quickly arrested Zhao.

Kang County Ling personally ascended to the court for interrogation, at the beginning of this Zhao did not admit to killing, Kang County Ling used torture tools, and after the last Zhao confessed, saying that she was because of a quarrel with the child, pushed him, and when she fell to the ground, her head hit the stone and died, she was scared, so she divided the body, under the pretext of beating pigweed, put the corpse and clothes and pants in the back basket, and threw them everywhere. As a result, the case was solved, and the original trial sentenced him to beheading for intentional homicide.

He read the state government's approval to remand for retrial, and just said: "This case is doubtful." ”

Cases remanded for retrial must first be examined by the torture room, reported to the judiciary and the county lieutenant, and then sent to the county order after being reviewed by the executive clothes, and then the county order will be raised to the court again for questioning and finally making a verdict based on the circumstances of the retrial and the drafted verdict.

The clerk in charge of the retrial of this case, the judicial officer who reviewed it, and the county lieutenant Deng, all felt that there was nothing wrong with the case, so they reported it to Xiao Jiading.

Xiao Jiading then began to look through the file. There are not many materials in the dossier, that is, some confessions and testimonies, in addition to the corpse compartment filled in for the inquest of the corpse parts, and at the very end, there is also a kitchen knife that was confiscated and used to divide the corpse. He quickly read all the materials, but the murder weapon kitchen knife was not transferred.

Just after looking at it, his scholar Wen Yan came back, holding a stack of judgments. put it in front of Xiao Jiading, wiped his sweat, and said: "All of them have been found out, they are all here, and they are the verdicts of all the cases undertaken by Wu Donghai." ”

Xiao Jiading nodded: "It's hard work, you go and ask County Lieutenant Deng, where is the kitchen knife that said that the murder weapon in the Tong family's murder of his nephew and the dismemberment of the corpse?" Please send it to me. ”

Wen Yan agreed to go out, and soon came back, saying: "County Lieutenant Deng said that the murder weapons are stored in the evidence warehouse, and they cannot be transferred with the case, if you want to see it, you can only go to the evidence warehouse to see it, or wait for the Kang County Order to see it, and the murder weapon will be presented as evidence at that time." ”

Xiao Jiading nodded and began to think about this case.

If you want to talk about doubts, from the standard of evidence in modern judgments, this case must be weak in evidence. The only strong evidence other than the confession was the testimony of the villager who saw Tong squatting by the stinking ditch where the deceased's head was later found. None of the other testimonies were directly probative. The kitchen knife used to divide the corpse, because there is no blood stain identification, I don't know if the blood on the road is the deceased, or even whether it is human. There is no other evidence to corroborate Tong's testimony about the motive for the crime, Zhao has never admitted that she had fornicated with others, and her confession was made under torture, if it was in the Tang Dynasty, this was a legitimate way to obtain evidence, but for Xiao Jiading from modern times, this is very suspicious. This kind of evidence is illegal evidence in modern times and must be excluded. In this way, the evidence in this case is very thin.

Could it be that the state government is referring to this when it says "this case is suspicious"?

Xiao Jiading immediately denied it. Because he studied the history of the legal system, he knew that in ancient China, confession was the king of evidence, and as long as there was a confession, there was no other evidence to decide the case. Therefore, judging from the standard of evidence in the Tang Dynasty, this case is already an iron case with sufficient evidence. Therefore, what the state government said is doubtful, it should not be a question of whether the evidence is sufficient.

So what does the state mean by doubt?

He couldn't figure it out. In the end, he decided to first write down his opinion agreeing to the draft verdict of the torture room, and report it to the Kang County Lingshengtang for questioning.

After reading the Kang County Order, he instructed Xiao Jiading: "Tomorrow morning, you will go to the court to hear this case, and you inform County Lieutenant Deng and let him arrange it." ”

Xiao Jiading agreed, went to the county lieutenant, and said that the county order would be promoted tomorrow. County Lieutenant Deng hurriedly arranged for the official to summon the witnesses and the victim to the court early tomorrow morning. After the arrangements were made, County Lieutenant Deng asked Xiao Jiading in a low voice: "Has Zhiyi found the suspicious part of the case?" ”

Xiao Jiading shook his head and said: "The culprit in this case has pleaded guilty, and the murder weapon that dismembered the body has been recovered, as well as witnesses who proved that she was seen at the scene of the corpse dumping." The evidence is sufficient, and if it is lacking, then there is no evidence of the murderous woman's motive for killing. - Didn't you ask for evidence that she was having an affair with someone and was bumped into by the deceased's mother? ”

County Lieutenant Deng said: "At present, this evidence is only the statement of the deceased's mother, Tong, and we asked other people in the village, and they all said that they did not know what to do. ”

"What about the murderer Zhao? Does she admit it? ”

She never acknowledged it. She only admitted that she killed the child, saying that it was because the child was disobedient, she pushed the child, and the child fell, hitting his head right on the stone, and died. She was scared, so she took a kitchen knife and threw the body apart. ”