Has Article 73 of the Criminal Procedure Amendment passed? When does it take effect?

The Law Committee held a meeting on the morning of 12 March to deliberate on the draft decision on revisions and to study the deputies' deliberation opinions one by one. The Law Committee considered that it was feasible to amend the draft decision and proposed the following amendments:

The draft amendment to the Criminal Procedure Law makes five further amendments, excluding Article 73.

1. Article 5 of the draft amendment decision provides for the right of criminal suspects or defendants to retain a defender. Some deputies pointed out that where a criminal suspect or defendant requests to retain a defender while in custody, the people's courts, people's procuratorates, and public security organs shall promptly convey their request. The Law Commission has studied and recommended this opinion.

II. Article 18 of the Draft Decision on the Amendment provides that verbal evidence gathered by torture or other illegal methods shall be excluded, and also stipulates the conditions for the exclusion of physical and documentary evidence collected in violation of legal provisions. Some deputies suggested that it was inappropriate to supplement or correct or explain physical and documentary evidence that had already been collected in violation of the law. After research, the Law Committee held that this situation may be limited to situations where the legal procedures are not complied with when collecting physical and documentary evidence.

It is suggested that the above relevant provisions be amended to read: "Where the collection of physical or documentary evidence does not comply with legally-prescribed procedures and might seriously impact judicial fairness, it shall be supplemented and corrected or a reasonable explanation shall be made; and where it cannot be supplemented or corrected or a reasonable explanation can be made, the evidence shall be excluded. ”

Article 47 of the draft amendment decision provides for investigative measures for conducting physical examinations. Some delegates suggested replacing the phrase "collecting fingerprint information, blood and urine and other biological samples" with "extracting fingerprint information and collecting biological samples such as blood and urine". The Law Commission has studied and recommended this opinion.

IV. Article 93 of the Draft Revision Decision provides: The Supreme People's Court may interrogate the defendant when reviewing death penalty cases. It was suggested that the words "may" be used to interrogate the defendant should be replaced by "shall". The Law Commission has studied and recommended this opinion.

V. Article 108 of the Draft Revised Decision provides: Where criminal suspects or defendants voluntarily and sincerely repent of their crimes, and obtain the victims' forgiveness through methods such as compensating the victims for losses or making formal apologies, the parties may reconcile. Some delegates suggested that it should be made clear that in a public prosecution case, if the victim voluntarily settles, the parties may reconcile.

After research, the Law Committee recommends that the above provisions be amended to read: "Where criminal suspects or defendants sincerely repent of their crimes and obtain the victims' forgiveness through methods such as compensating the victims for losses or making formal apologies, and the victims voluntarily reconcile, both parties may reconcile."

Adopted to take effect on January 1, 2013.

Legal Analysis: Adopted at the Second Session of the Fifth National People's Congress on July 1, 1979.

It was amended for the first time in accordance with the "Decision on Amending the Criminal Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China" issued at the Fourth Session of the Eighth National People's Congress on March 17, 1996.

Amended for the second time in accordance with the Fifth Session of the Eleventh National People's Congress on March 14, 2012, the "Decision on Amending the Criminal Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China".

Amended for the third time in accordance with the Decision on Amending the Criminal Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China at the Sixth Session of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress on October 26, 2018.

Legal basis: Criminal Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China Article 2 The tasks of the Criminal Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China are to ensure that the facts of crimes are accurately and promptly ascertained, that the law is correctly applied, that criminals are punished, that innocent persons are not criminally prosecuted, that citizens are educated to consciously abide by the law, that they actively struggle against criminal acts, that the socialist legal system is upheld, that human rights are respected and protected, that citizens' personal, property, democratic and other rights are protected, and that the cause of socialist construction is carried out smoothly.

This law is the crime of hooliganism and counter-revolution in disguise!