A Chinese court which adopted a computer software system to help judges sentence criminals has seen no appeals after more than 1,000 criminal cases.

The software, tested for two years in a court in Zibo, east China's Shandong Province, was applied in more than 100 different crimes and aimed at ensuring standardized decisions on prison terms.

A local software company and a Beijing-based software company have worked with the Zichuan District Court to develop the program and input laws and judicial interpretations since 2003.

Judges enter the details of a case and the system suggests a sentence under a minute. Judges still have the discretion to adjust the sentence on the basis of their own judgment to the case.

The Legal Daily newspaper cited a traffic accident case, when a judge input "a traffic accident in which one person died" and the computer stated the "basic sentence should be one year". The judge then input "The accused should bear 90 percent of the responsibility for the accident", and the screen showed "an increase of nine months". The judge input "The accused confessed and promised compensation", and the software replied "reduce the sentence duration by 15 to 25 percent".

Finally the judging panel imposed a 13-months jail term.

"I believe this computer software system will promote judicial work in China," said Wang Jiandong, chief justice of Zichuan district court, adding that it would help prevent judicial abuse.

"Computers, with no emotion or desire, are unaffected by external factors in making decisions. That's why we use it in college enrollments and traffic scrutiny," said Zhang Baosheng, vice president of China University of Political Science and Law.

However, other experts argued that trials were very complicated, requiring a good grasp of legal knowledge and plenty of practical experience. Therefore only decisions of judges are trustful.

(Xinhua News Agency September 15, 2006)