Jimu news reporter Ding Wei Li Xiancheng
The murder of Li Mouyue, a female college student in Nanjing, was originally scheduled to be tried on the morning of December 17 at the Xishuangbanna Prefecture Intermediate People's Court in Yunnan Province. On the afternoon of the 16th, Li Mouyue's family was told in the court that the original trial time was cancelled, and such a result was unacceptable to the family (Jimu News previously reported). In this regard, the lawyer gave an explanation.
Photo by Ding Wei, Jimu News Reporter, Xishuangbanna Prefecture Intermediate People's Court, Yunnan Province
The court explained the postponement of the hearing
At about 5:30 p.m. on the 16th, Yang Zhu, the lawyer representing the murdered girl Li Mouyue, walked out of the court and said, "The explanation given by the court is that at the pre-trial meeting on Monday, the other party's lawyer said that he wanted to exclude illegal evidence, and the court had to give a reply to the opposing lawyer within three days, and today is the last day." On the afternoon of the 17th, a second pretrial conference was to be held, so the trial scheduled for the morning of the 17th was temporarily cancelled. ”
Lawyer Yang said that at present, the court has not yet determined a specific time for the hearing, and there may be a third or fourth pre-trial conference in the future.
On the afternoon of the 16th, the Jimu News reporter heard from the record of the december 7 call between Li Mouyue's father and the court staff, and the court staff clearly informed Li Father at that time that the case would be tried on the morning of December 17.
Li Mouyue's mother (right) and aunt (left) Jimu News reporter Ding Wei photographed
Regarding the postponement of the court's provisional notice, there are many doubts on the part of the victim's family. "We have so many people in the family, running more than 3,000 kilometers, saying that we will not open a court without a court, how can we understand this?" The families of the victims said in an interview with Jimu News reporters at the entrance of the courthouse.
Should the "adjournment" be given in advance?
In this regard, lawyer Chai Xin of Beijing Dacheng (Wuhan) Law Firm told Jimu News that according to article 187 of the Criminal Procedure Law, "after the people's court decides to hold a trial, it shall determine the composition of the collegial panel and deliver a copy of the people's procuratorate's indictment to the defendant and his defender at least ten days before the opening of the trial." At the same time, according to the provisions of the third paragraph of the article, "after the people's court determines the date of the hearing, it shall notify the people's procuratorate of the time and place of the hearing, summon the parties, notify the defender, agent ad litem, witnesses, evaluators and interpreters, and the summons and notice shall be served no later than three days before the hearing." In cases tried in public, the cause of the case, the defendant's name, and the time and place of the hearing shall be announced in advance three days before the opening of the trial. ”
"That is to say, at present, the Criminal Procedure Law only stipulates that the court must notify the hearing time three days in advance of the hearing, but it does not stipulate that if the hearing needs to be cancelled or postponed due to special circumstances, it must also be notified three days in advance." Lawyer Chai explains.
Lawyer Chai also said that in general, for major criminal cases, before the formal hearing, the court will organize a pre-trial conference to allow all parties to communicate in advance on whether to apply for recusal, the list of witnesses appearing in court, the exclusion of illegal evidence, etc., so that the formal hearing can be carried out efficiently in the later stage. Therefore, the defense lawyer of the criminal suspect in this case has the right to apply for the exclusion of illegal evidence in the course of litigation, and the people's court needs to conduct a review and investigation against the criminal suspect's defense lawyer's application for the exclusion of illegal evidence, and if in the course of review or investigation it is found that it is necessary to notify the relevant investigators or other personnel to appear in court to explain the situation, or find that there are some other circumstances in the case that require time to investigate, the court may cancel the hearing and change the trial time in accordance with its authority.
However, in Mr. Chai's view, although the law does not make mandatory provisions on the need for a few days' notice when the court cancels the hearing, the court should follow the principle of "judicial convenience" and try to notify all parties in advance of the litigation participants, so as not to increase the litigation costs for the litigation participants and add more litigation burdens.
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