Southeast China's Jiangxi Province has recently issued a local regulation to standardize evidence for death penalty cases involving intentional homicide. The directive aims at avoiding incorrect verdicts and misjudged cases.

A regulation to standardize evidence for death penalty cases involving intentional homicide has been released jointly by the People's Court, People's Procuratorate and the Public Security Department of Jiangxi Province. This authoritative document aims at avoiding incorrect verdicts and misjudged cases; it is the first of its kind regarding evidence for death penalties involving deliberate murder. The directive has drawn close attention from the legal profession and the public.

Based on the regulation, image data is now required as a part of evidence collection. The document also stipulates that lawyers can be on the scene when interrogating suspects if necessary and that all controversial identification should be submitted to the court. Detectives cannot refuse to bear witness without special reasons. Different standards of evidence collection will be worked out according to each individual murder case.

A lot of incorrect verdicts and misjudged cases have been reported in recent years, insiders said. One important reason for this is lack of relative regulations. The new official document has created a unified standard for evidence collection, identification and utilization, with many unique rules.

(China.org.cn by Yang Xi, January 14, 2008)