死刑案件的有效性辩护——基于6517份判决书的实证分析

Effective Defense in Death Penalty Cases:An Empirical Analysis Based on 6517 Verdicts

对6517份死刑判决书实证分析发现,死刑案件具有各省份分布差异较大、被告人以中青年男性为主且教育水平整体偏低、特殊主体分布具有一定的比例以及辩护意见较为单一、全部不予采纳案件数量较多等特点。究其原因,主要是死刑刑事政策与辩护意见未充分契合、死刑案件辩护有效性仍需大力提升、对被害人过错的整体性考量有待强化等。死刑案件有效性辩护的实践路径可在“类案类判”的逻辑框架下展开,充分考虑死刑案件的总体刑事政策与(个案)具体刑事政策、死刑文化与社会舆论、行为人个人因素与具体犯罪案件之间的关联程度以及被害人过错因素等,且司法人员应对辩护意见予以重视,为辩护人的辩护创造积极有力的条件。

The empirical analysis of 6517 death penalty verdicts finds that the death penalty cases have the general characteristics such as a large difference in the distribution of death penalty cases and court hearings in each province between different years,death penalty defendants being mainly young and middle-aged males and mostly having below-junior high school education,and a certain proportion of special death penalty defendants as well as the specific characteristics such as a considerable number of cases where the defense opinions are either monotonous or all rejected.The reasons for this are that the criminal policy on death penalty and the defense opinions do not fully match,the effectiveness of defense in death penalty cases still needs to be greatly improved,and the overall consideration of the victim's fault needs to be strengthened.In this regard,the practical path of effective defense in death penalty cases can be developed under the logical framework of“class judgment”,taking into full consideration the overall criminal policy and the specific criminal policy of death penalty cases,the culture of the death penalty and social opinion,the degree of correlation between the personal factors of the perpetrator and the specific crime cases,and the the victim's fault,etc.,and judicial officers should pay attention to defense opinions and create positive and strong conditions for the defense.