Text |Cai Zizhong.
The plea leniency system is the most far-reaching criminal procedure reform measure in recent years, which is widely used in judicial practice, and has its particularity in juvenile crime cases.
A key link in a criminal suspect's plea of guilt and acceptance of punishment is the procuratorate's review for prosecution phase, which is embodied in the criminal suspect's voluntary admission of guilt, acceptance of the procuratorate's proposed decision to prosecute or not to prosecute, approval of the people's procuratorate's sentencing recommendation, and signing a plea affidavit. However, for juvenile criminal suspects, if they voluntarily admit guilt and accept punishment, but their legally-designated person or defense lawyer does not need to sign a plea affidavit if they have objections to their plea, and this situation does not impact the application of the plea leniency system.
It can be seen from this that for adult criminal suspects (defendants), there is often a dilemma between plea leniency and a lawyer's not-guilty defense;For juvenile criminal suspects (defendants), they can enjoy the double "dividends" of legally-prescribed plea leniency and lawyer's not-guilty defense at the same time.
In addition, the combined application of conditional non-prosecution and plea leniency also paves the way for the procuratorate's decision not to prosecute, paving the way to innocence.
Author: Cai Zizhong, practicing lawyer in Beijing).