Cases
Hylands Successfully Defends a Major Official Crime Case and Obtains a Remand for Retrial
In the case of Zhang, the former deputy secretary of a municipal Party Committee, who was suspected of accepting bribes, was sentenced to 15 years in prison by the court of first instance, which determined that Zhang had accepted bribes of more than RMB 30 million, and the client appealed to the Provincial High People's Court. At the second trial stage of the case, Partner Jie TIAN and his team from Hylands were entrusted by Zhang's family to defend Zhang.
Upon accepting the commission for the second trial, after several meetings and reviews of the case file, Jie TIAN's team, based on careful study of the case as well as full understanding and argumentation, concluded that the findings of the first trial that Zhang constituted an accepting bribe involved a number of problematic issues such as unclear facts, insufficient evidence and procedural violations. During the period, the defense lawyers have maintained repeated communication with the court commissioner and submitted the corresponding application and evidential materials. The provincial high court, upon several extensions of the trial period, held two pre-trial conferences and heard the defense's opinions on various aspects of facts, procedures and evidence, reversed the trial verdict and remanded the case for retrial on the grounds that the facts were unclear. The turnaround finally came four and a half years after the accused Zhang was taken into custody. The result that the case could be remanded for retrial was made possible by the meticulous preparation of the case file materials by Jie TIAN's team, the in-depth analysis and comparison of synchronized audio and video recordings, the rigorous and standardized off-site investigation and evidence collection, as well as the full and comprehensive elaboration of opinions in the pre-trial conferences.
I.Understanding the details of the case in a timely manner and accomplishing the review and organization of extensive case files in a short period of time
First, timely retrieval of all case files. Upon accepting the commission, Jie TIAN's team immediately retrieved all the files and materials, and accurately understood the facts of the case as soon as possible, so as to fully prepare for the defense work.
Second, adequately combing, understanding the case files. Upon acquisition of the case file materials, the lawyers of the team have worked overtime, thoroughly reviewed over 30 volumes and nearly 6,000 pages of the case file materials, and compiled over 300 pages of working documents, such as the catalog of evidence, timeline of case events, composition elements corresponding to evidence combing, list of verification issues, and summary of contradiction points, so as to comprehensively understand and comb through the details of the case in the shortest time. The most important aspect of criminal defense is to thoroughly study the case files, and by doing so, to understand the thoughts of the prosecution; meanwhile, go beyond the case files to form your own defense ideas. Preparing for court with the aid of professional forces.
Sorting through nearly 300 chronological timelines of events in this case (partial)
Third, overcoming multiple difficulties to obtain multiple meetings. Upon receiving the commission, the team immediately commenced the review of the case files and overcame the objective difficulties of strict supervision during the epidemic and meeting off-site and met with Zhang several times to verify the circumstances with him and understand the case in detail. During the second trial stage, the team has met with the client over 20 times by remote meeting and on-site meeting to communicate the process and ideas of the case in a timely manner.
Combing the visualized contradiction figure of this case (partial)
Fourth, issuing a detailed litigation plan of nearly 200 pages for multiple facts. The team still felt the pressure upon accepting the commission. The reason is that the case involved multiple facts, a long period of time, as well as many specialized areas. The team has restored the facts of the entire case from the complicated case files, repeatedly viewed the first trial videos carefully, determined the defense ideas, and prepared a nearly 200-page Compendium of Defense Opinions after more than a dozen discussions and revisions, providing a full and detailed analysis of each fact alleged in the indictment by the public prosecution, laying a solid foundation for a successful defense in the end.
By carefully reviewing the synchronized audio and video recordings of interrogations as well as the video recordings of the first trial, the team has performed an analysis and comparison accurate to the second, specializing and refining the defense By reading the files, the team lawyers discovered that the content, structure and order of the interrogation transcripts of the guilty pleas of Zhang were identical to the transcripts of the witness interviews, which should have been prepared in advance and pasted and copied.
During the interviews, Zhang complained that he had been tortured to extract a confession and also explained that his statements had been made up by the case officers and then recited by him. The lawyers immediately applied for access to the simultaneous audio and video recording of the interrogation, which was approved by the judge. During several visits to the provincial high court for review of the audio and video recordings, the team has compared the recordings with the interrogation transcripts. By comparison, it was discovered that the video clearly showed that the case officer did not actually enter the statement from beginning to end, and the transcript was printed when the interrogation began, and the case officer performed the interrogation with the transcript already in writing. Apparently, the transcripts had been prepared long before the interrogation, and the defendant was reciting them. Furthermore, in terms of time, the case officer interrogated for ten minutes, however, the transcript was 7 pages in length, and the interrogations were all about the circumstances of ten years ago, and the defendant answered the questions without thinking, which was obviously unreasonable. In response to the above circumstances, the team prepared a Summary Table of Problems with Synchronized Audio and Video Recordings of Interrogations for the facts of 26 cases, and compared the parts of the interrogation transcripts with the contents of the synchronized audio and video recordings that had substantive differences, and the contents of the synchronized audio and video recordings were accurately marked to the second, so as to facilitate verification by the court and the procuratorate. Meanwhile, the team also combed through other issues reflected in the video such as induced confessions, alleged confessions, and the physical conditions of the parties that might serve as clues to illegal interrogations, and eventually produced nearly 100 pages of applications to exclude illegal evidence and attachments, which were submitted to the court in the course of the pre-trial conference.
Actively submitting applications for investigation and evidence collection, and standardizing and rigorously performing off-site investigation and evidence collection to prove the objective facts of the case
The team members submitted the Application for Access to Evidence several times to the Provincial High Court, and also visited many counties and cities where Zhang had worked to investigate and collect evidence, during which related evidence was collected, and the authenticity of the evidence was carefully verified and corroborated. According to the Criminal Procedure Law, investigators shall, in accordance with legal procedures, collect various types of evidence capable of confirming the guilt or innocence of the suspect or defendant as well as the seriousness of the crime. However, the reality was that, in the specific handling of the case, the mindset of collecting evidence of guilt always occupied the minds of the case officers, and it was difficult to ask the case officers to balance well the collection of evidence of guilt or even innocence, and these tasks still had to be done to a large extent by defense lawyers. In fact, there are many criminal cases relying on the essential investigation and collection of evidence by lawyers, however, owing to concerns about the risks of their practices, many defense lawyers refuse to investigate and collect evidence, thereby resulting in lost defense opportunities, making the defense much less effective or unsatisfactory. We should not break the bottom line of the occupation, but also should not be put off easily by a slight risk and consider the lawyer's investigation and evidence collection as "not to crossing a step beyond the safeline". For the investigation and evidence collection of this case, the team has well assessed and understood the risks, and each forensic link has been well considered, and the forensic procedures have been standardized and rigorous. Upon acquiring related evidence, team members have concluded that the core evidence in the alleged bribery case of Zhang was not authentic and comprehensive, resulting in a major controversy regarding the conviction and sentencing of the case. To this end, the defenders have actively communicated with the case officer several times, and explained the doubtful part of the evidence to the case officer, proposed that the conviction and sentence of the case were improper, and submitted 22 newly retrieved evidential materials at the pre-trial conference.
By means of pre-trial conferences, the circumstances that the trial court had violated the litigation procedure and the facts of the trial verdict were unclear were fully elaborated, and the case was effectively defended in terms of facts and procedures.
Two pre-trial conferences were held for this case in 2021, during which the prosecution and defense fully presented their views on procedural aspects in court. As one of the significant supporting measures to promote the substantiation of court trials, the pre-court conference system has been increasingly applied in practice, and the high priority given to pre-court conferences in some major cases has become increasingly prominent. With the reform of the criminal procedure system in China, the emphasis of criminal defense has shifted forwards, and the importance of pre-trial defense prior to trial cannot be ignored. For example, at the pre-trial stage of investigation or prosecution, in the event that the criminal defense lawyers can apply for access to favorable evidence, issue defense opinions or seek leniency for the parties to plead guilty and punishments, they will be able to assist the parties to lift, change the custodial coercive measures or even possibly obtain favorable results such as dismissal of cases and non-prosecution, so as to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of the clients to a greater extent. As such, it has become an increasingly high priority for criminal defense lawyers to engage in effective advocacy in pre-trial conferences. Following round after round of sorting through the case file materials and evidence, the team has composed hundreds of pages of Application for Exclusion of Illegal Evidence as well as 11 relevant chart attachments, which were submitted to the court at the pre-trial conference, along with re-submission of several application materials such as Application for Integration of Investigation and Evidence, Application for Appearance of Key Witnesses, Application for Appearance of Investigators, and Application for Bail Pending Trial, integrating and reiterating the various applications submitted for the second trial of the case, and dutifully defending the defendant to obtain the most favorable outcomes. At the pre-trial conference, on the multiple applications for exclusion of illegal evidence and applications for investigation and collection of evidence made by the defense in response to the evidence and clues obtained, the prosecutor appearing before the provincial procuratorate could not provide an explanation of the legality, and the provincial high court judge also requested the prosecutor to continue verification out of court. Following the pre-trial conference, the court of second instance postponed the formal hearing several times and eventually ordered the case to be remanded for further trial.
Conclusion:
Criminal defense lawyers must rely on evidence and the law as their weapons, whether it is a case of crime in office or other major cases, and be courageous enough to carefully review the facts and evidence, urge the judiciary to deal with problems with rule of law mindset and approach, break the dilemma with professional and refined defense, effectively protect the legitimate rights and interests of the defendant and safeguard the fairness and justice of the society. It took nearly two years for the second trial of this case, with a series of twists and turns. From the first instance sentence of imprisonment for 15 years to the second instance, the Provincial High Court finally adopted the views of the team and reversed the first instance verdict on the grounds of unclear facts and ruled that the case be remanded for retrial. Regarding the major crime in office (especially the second trial), it was rare to achieve the defense effect through the efforts of the lawyer team, and the retrial ruling brought a ray of hope to the client and his family, thus the work reached the milestone. In the coming course, the Hylands criminal practice team will keep up its responsibilities and continue to make unremitting efforts to fight for the legal rights of the client in the retrial of the first trial.
Jie TIAN's team has a strong focus on criminal defense and dispute resolution, with extensive practical experience and numerous successful cases in major and difficult cases, and has been widely recognized by clients for exquisite expertise as well as a conscientious and responsible service attitude. The case was undertaken by Jie TIAN, Weijia ZENG and Huidong FAN.