Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No.1, 2016

 

The Chinese Paradigm of Exclusionary Rule of Illegally Obtained Evidence-An Analysis of 1,459 Criminal Cases

(Abstract)

 

Yi Yanyou

 

In China, the exclusionary rule of illegally obtained evidence has stepped from legal texts towards judicial practice, and played an important role in guaranteeing human rights. In judicial practice, most applications for the exclusion of illegally obtained evidence can launch the examination of validity of evidence, and one tenths or so has received support and thus excluded illegally obtained evidence. In cases where illegally obtained evidence is excluded, some defendants were acquitted, some cases were remanded for retrial, in some cases, procuratorates withdrew their prosecutions; and in some other cases, part of alleged corpus delicti were not determined although the accused were convicted. The judicial practice of exclusion of illegally obtained evidence has displayed some problems, for example, the rights of suspects and the accused cannot receive better protection because of the absence of the principle of fruit of the poisonous tree, the phenomenon of shifting the burden of proof arose concerning the problem of proof of validity of evidence in some cases, the court deduced the legality of procedures from the truthfulness of content in some cases, and the ambiguity of rules led to insufficient protection of rights in some cases. A remedy is to establish the rule of “fruit of the poisonous tree,” prevent the inversion of the burden of proof, and turn step by step from the rule of evidence classification to the rule of right classification.