Serendipitous Justice: A Study on Wrongful Convictions in China

Abstract

A system of Criminal Justice may go wrong in two ways: acquittal of the factually guilt (false negatives), and conviction of the factually innocent (false positives). False positives are more injurious to the system because it let the guilty individual remain in the streets and be able to commit more crimes in the society, in addition to causing tremendous loss of liberty, reputation, family interests, financial interests, and even life to an innocent person. In China, there have been some high profile wrongful convictions during recent years. Through the lens of these cases, we can identify certain systemic failures in China s criminal procedure. In my article, I will inquiry into the causes of wrongful convictions in China by analyzing ten cases and propose some reforms. Among the various causes, I single out the evidentiary position of confession as the most important. With comparison to Roman-canon law of evidence and English law of torture during the Elizabethan time, I draw some propositional conclusions on how the Chinese procedural rules with regard to confession should be amended.