最高人民法院死刑复核全面审查原则再检视

On the Principle of Full Review of Procedure for Review of Death Sentences in Supreme Court

为确保司法监督的有效性,死刑复核程序确立全面审查原则。近年来为了提高死刑办案质量,死刑复核全面审查原则被进一步强化。但从死刑复核实践中不核准率下降以及不核准事由越来越集中于死刑适用不当来看,全面审查原则在确保死刑案件办案质量方面的作用下滑。这与证据裁判的确立、控辩双方的参与有关。全面审查原则对刑事司法程序和刑事司法结构的冲击逐渐凸显,如全面审查原则带来刑事诉讼程序重心上移,也使得最高人民法院不堪重负,增加最高人民法院的政治风险。我们可以借鉴有限审查的做法,将死刑复核全面审查改造为重点审查。

The purpose of the principle of full review is to review the judgements of the lower courts.In recent years,the principle of full review is strengthened to guarantee the quality of handling death sentence cases.However,based on the fact that the rate of disapproval declines and the reasons of disapproval focus on the application of death penalty,we can infer that this principle’s function of guaranteeing is weakening.The functional weakening of the full review principle might result from the establishment of the principle of evidentiary adjudication and the participation of the accuser and defense counsel in the procedure for reviewing death sentences.The principle of full review would have its impact on the criminal procedure and criminal judicial system.For example,the core of the criminal trial procedure would be transformed into the the procedure for reviewing death sentences,and the Supreme Court would be overloaded and suffer special political risks.Therefore,we can borrow the experience from the strict review,and reform the principle of full review to censored review.