“孤证不能定案”规则之反思与重塑

Reflections on and Reshaping of the Rule That “a Verdict Can't Be Based on Solitary Evidence”

"孤证不能定案"是我国刑事司法中形成的一项证据潜规则,该规则虽旨在通过证据之间的补强而防止错误采信证据并造成错案,但容易导致证据补强规则成为纯粹的数量规则,从而致使事实认定模式的机械化,同时对我国的刑事证明标准改革造成阻碍。尽管如此,我国仍不具备废除该潜规则的条件,所以需要对其进行合理化重塑。应当将"孤证不能定案"的功能严格限定在证据补强方面,而不是作为单纯的数量规则。对于因存在利害关系或证人本身原因而具有较大虚假风险的言词证据等几类证据,仍需遵循"孤证不能定案"规则。但对于口供之外其它可以确定证明力较强的直接证据等几类证据,无需适用"孤证不能定案"规则。另外,"孤证不能定案"不适用于中间事实、部分事实的认定;有利于被告人的事实不适用"孤证不能定案"规则;在运用孤证定案时,应当注意是否做出了排除合理怀疑的判断。

The rule that“a verdict can’t be based on solitary evidence”is an implicit rule in China’s criminal justice,the purpose of which is to prevent false evidence and miscarriage of justice by strengthening and corroborating evidence.However,it may be turned from a rule of evidence reinforcement into a pure quantitative rule,thus leading to the mechanization of fact-finding mode and hindering the reform of China’s criminal proof standard.Nevertheless,now conditions are still not ripe for China to abolish this hidden rule,so it is necessary to rationalize it.This rule should not be treated as a simple quantitative rule and its function should be strictly limited to evidence reinforcement.The rule still needs to be followed for several types of evidence,such as verbal evidence with greater risk of falsehood due to the existence of interest relationship or the reasons of the witness himself.But for other kinds of evidence,such as direct evidence that have strong probative force,it is not necessary to follow this rule.In addition,the rule does not apply to the identification of intermediate facts and partial facts,or to a fact that is beneficial to the accused.When making use of solitary evidence,attention should be paid to the question of whether reasonable doubts are excluded.