Innocence defense [case commission content]

When lawyers take on criminal cases, they often encounter clients who request innocence defense. As professional legal professionals, lawyers’ responsibilities include proposing that the criminal suspect or defendant is innocent or has a minor crime based on the facts and legal basis of the case. Or provide materials and opinions to reduce or exempt criminal liability, and safeguard the litigation rights and other legitimate rights and interests of criminal suspects and defendants.

When encountering cases entrusted by some criminal suspects or their close relatives, they ask the defense lawyer to provide innocence defense based on their subjective wishes. However, the winning rate of innocence defense in criminal cases in China is not high, which leads to the subjective wishes of the parties and the defense lawyer. When conflicts of opinions arise and how to deal with them, FasterLawyer gives the following suggestions.

In criminal proceedings, when the defendant does not plead guilty, the lawyer should not defend the case on his own. If the lawyer defends the case on his own, he is tantamount to acting as the "second prosecutor." In response to the client's litigation request, the lawyer should actively negotiate and communicate and strive to reach a consensus with the client in a language that the client can understand; the lawyer can also propose to defend the conviction and sentencing separately to avoid focusing on one and losing the other, which will affect the effectiveness of the defense; if the two parties are indeed unable to By consensus, it was recommended to terminate the defense relationship.

In practice, when handling the innocence defense requests of criminal suspects, defendants' family members, and clients, lawyers should base their opinions on the criminal suspects or defendants themselves. If they are minors, their own attitudes should be used as the basis. and the circumstances for determining whether the evidence in the case is sufficient shall be fully explained to the guardian.

If the criminal suspect or defendant himself believes that he is innocent or refuses to plead guilty, the lawyer cannot decide on his own to plead a misdemeanor, but can only plead not guilty. Based on this, if the lawyer believes that a crime has been committed based on his or her own legal knowledge, and the two parties cannot reach an agreement on defense after communication, the lawyer may suggest that the client appoints another defense lawyer, and both parties terminate the entrustment agreement.

The above is based on Article 31 of the Lawyers Law of the People's Republic of China :

When a lawyer serves as a defender , he or she shall, based on the facts and the law , present materials proving that the criminal suspect or defendant is innocent , has a minor crime, or has his or her criminal liability reduced or exempted . and opinions , and safeguard the litigation rights and other legitimate rights and interests of criminal suspects and defendants .