Suspects get chance to avoid sentences
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Wang Zuo, a criminal suspect who killed a woman three months ago when driving a truck, is now a voluntary traffic police assistant in Ningbo.
The procuratorate decided to defer the prosecution after he admitted his guilt voluntarily and made every endeavor to compensate the victim's family with over 600,000 yuan ($89,000) including 100,000 yuan for psychological damage.
"I'm glad to do the job because it's an opportunity to redeem my fault," Wang told Legal Weekly.
However, some legal experts have questioned the jurisdiction of the procuratorate in diverting suspects into the program, as prosecutors don't have the right to judge if a person is guilty. That is the responsibility of judges.
"There is no relevant law in China to support the system," said Yin Lin, a scholar with the law institute of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences. "It should be left to the court to judge if a criminal suspect should be sentenced, rather than the procuratorate."
In addition, she said, some people may bribe the procuratorate to get conditional prosecution, which would lead to corruption and complaints, she said.
However, Yin said, the cost for both the plaintiff and defendant is less if the case ends at the procuratorate.
"But the system needs to be improved," she said. "First of all, the system must be backed by law."
"We need a quantitative standard to judge the criminal suspect's voluntary work and there should be special social workers to supervise them."
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