Recently, the Supreme People's Procuratorate selected and released 10 typical criminal prosecution cases, including the "Liu Intentional Injury Second Instance Protest Case". This is the first time in July 2023 that the Supreme People's Procuratorate has released guiding cases on the theme of criminal prosecution, once again focusing on criminal prosecution work and releasing typical cases. The Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Strengthening the Legal Supervision of Procuratorial Organs in the New Era require that "comprehensive use of supervisory means such as protests, corrective opinions, and prosecutorial suggestions should be used to timely correct problems such as obviously improper conviction and sentencing, and serious violations of trial procedures." Accurate characterization and appropriate sentencing are the most fundamental manifestations of the fairness of criminal judicial judgments. The reporter observed that this batch of typical cases covers multiple lines such as ordinary crime prosecution, major crime prosecution, duty crime prosecution, and economic crime prosecution. There are not only second instance appeal cases where the procuratorial organs supervise the first instance judgment, but also retrial appeal cases where they supervise the already effective judgment. There are also second instance and retrial appeal cases where the procuratorial organs actively fulfill their legal supervision functions and carry out continuous supervision of cases that affect judicial fairness. What are the considerations behind the release of this batch of typical cases that focus on evidence review and judgment? What are the characteristics of typical cases? What is the typical significance of each case? How to make good use of these typical cases? Yuan Ming, the Director of the Major Crimes Prosecution Department of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, accepted media interviews on relevant issues. Yuanming introduced that the scope of case types is wide, the supervision content is rich, and it has strong leading and exemplary value. From the perspective of case types, this batch of typical cases covers multiple lines of criminal prosecution. Among them, there was 1 ordinary crime, 5 major crimes, 2 job-related crimes, and 2 economic crimes; From the perspective of protest types, there were 6 second instance protests, 2 trial supervision procedure protests, and 2 second instance and retrial follow-up protests. From the characteristics of the cases, there are both cases where minor offenses are protested against by the prosecution against major offenses, as well as cases where major offenses are protested against by the prosecution against minor offenses. There are also cases where the victim requests a protest and cases where the prosecution has the power to protest. From the perspective of the reasons for appeal, there are cases where there are errors in factual determination and evidence acceptance, as well as cases where there are errors in the application of the law, such as the distinction between crimes and non crimes, this crime and that crime, and cases where the sentencing is clearly inappropriate. The scope of case types is wide, the supervision content is rich, and it has strong leading and exemplary value. He said that the typical cases released this time focus on difficult and complex issues such as evidence review, judgment, and sentencing application. Error in evidence admission is one of the main reasons for criminal prosecution. According to statistics, in 2024, procuratorial organs across the country filed a total of 6530 criminal appeals, of which cases based on inaccurate, insufficient or new evidence of conviction and sentencing accounted for about 35% of all criminal appeal cases. Among these typical cases, four cases involve issues of evidence review and judgment. For example, the "Wang Explosion Second Instance Protest Case" is an explosion case where the defendant was acquitted and sentenced to five years in prison. This case has reference significance for prosecutors on how to use indirect evidence to determine the case when handling explosive cases with concealed means and the defendant's "zero confession". When handling such cases, the procuratorial organs should focus on examining whether the investigation process is objective and natural, supplementing and improving evidence around the source, production, installation, and detonation process of explosives, and combining objective evidence such as on-site physical evidence traces inspection and appraisal opinions to dynamically reconstruct the crime process, fully utilizing appraisal opinions, expert witness opinions, and other auxiliary evidence to handle the case. Through these typical cases, Yuan Ming emphasized that when handling criminal prosecution cases, the procuratorial organs should strengthen the work of supplementing and strengthening evidence before and after the prosecution. For cases where the reasons for the prosecution are correct but the evidence is relatively weak, the higher-level procuratorate should not only make a simple decision to support or not support the prosecution, but also jointly carry out evidence reinforcement work with the lower level procuratorate, fully utilizing the combination of self investigation and public security organ supplementary investigation to supplement and strengthen the points of resistance. The accurate characterization and appropriate sentencing of issues related to sentencing and legal application are important manifestations of the fairness of criminal justice judgments. The main reasons for criminal prosecution are clearly inappropriate sentencing and inaccurate characterization. It is reported that among the typical cases in this batch, 6 cases involve sentencing and legal application issues. Accurate characterization and appropriate sentencing are the most fundamental manifestations of fair criminal justice judgments. The main reason for criminal prosecution is due to inaccurate application of the law resulting in significantly inappropriate sentencing or accurate characterization but with excessively light or heavy sentencing. Among the typical cases released to the public in this batch, there are a total of 3 cases involving sentencing application, namely: Zhu Moumou's intentional homicide appeal case in the second instance; The second instance appeal case of Ye and Li's illegal manufacturing, buying and selling of firearms and ammunition; The second instance appeal case of Wei's bribery and other crimes. There are a total of three cases involving legal application, namely: the second instance and retrial protest cases of Zhang and Liao's embezzlement of public funds and other crimes; Zhu Moumou's retrial and protest case of drug trafficking and transportation; Sun's fundraising fraud retrial appeal case. The case of "Zhu Moumou Intentional Murder Second Instance Protest" is a major malignant case in which the defendant publicly committed murder on a university campus in a public place, causing serious second degree injuries to the university student and seriously endangering the safety of people's lives and property. The typical significance of this case is that for such serious violent crimes, it is necessary to comprehensively consider factors such as the defendant's criminal motive, criminal methods, harmful consequences, and social impact, and strictly control the extent of leniency. If the court improperly applied lenient sentencing circumstances or imposed excessively lenient sentences, the procuratorial organ filed a protest in accordance with the law, and the defendant was ultimately sentenced from five years and six months of fixed-term imprisonment to fourteen years of fixed-term imprisonment, achieving a balance between crime and punishment, and being punished accordingly. For example, the case of Zhang and Liao's embezzlement of public funds and other crimes in the second instance and retrial is a case of embezzlement of public funds that continues the second instance and retrial protests. The original judgment did not determine that the two defendants constituted the crime of embezzlement of public funds, resulting in an obviously inappropriate sentencing. The procuratorial organ supplemented and improved the evidence, and continued the appeal. The court revised the verdict of the two defendants for embezzlement of public funds and sentenced them to ten years and six months in prison. The typical significance of this case lies in accurately applying the legislative interpretation of the crime of embezzlement of public funds and correctly grasping the essential characteristics of "personal decision" and "seeking personal interests". For the crime of embezzlement of public funds committed through collusion between internal and external parties, covert means, and attempts to conduct normal market transactions, the procuratorial organs have comprehensively sorted and reviewed relevant witness testimonies, economic contracts, real commodity transactions, and other evidence, identified the purpose, fund flow, commodity circulation, and benefits behind the embezzlement of public funds, exposed the essence of false transactions, and accurately charged according to law. For example, the case of "Zhu Moumou's trafficking and transportation of drugs retrial and protest" was a case in which the procuratorial organs discovered protest clues during the organization of a special evaluation activity for criminal trial supervision. This case has reference significance for the correct application of the law and the accurate distinction between the crime of illegal possession of drugs and the crime of drug trafficking. It reminds the investigators to pay attention to the excavation of verbal evidence from the upper and lower families when determining the subjective intention of drug trafficking. For those who purchase drugs over long distances, attention should also be paid to examining whether there is an objective behavior and subjective circulation purpose accompanying the transportation of drugs, comprehensively identifying the criminal facts, and accurately applying the law. Yuanming stated that the release of typical cases of criminal prosecution is an important task in implementing the spirit of the National Conference on Criminal Prosecution Work of Procuratorial Organs and the National Experience Exchange Conference on Criminal Prosecution Work of Procuratorial Organs. In the future, we will continue to strengthen comprehensive business guidance for criminal prosecution work, study and formulate rules for criminal trial supervision work, and promote the high-quality and efficient handling of every criminal prosecution case. Cai Daotong, a professor at the Law School of Nanjing Normal University and a researcher at the China Institute of Modernization of the Rule of Law, believes that the Supreme People's Procuratorate's release of a typical case of criminal protest is of great value in ensuring that every judicial case can be subject to legal supervision. In an interview with the reporter of Rule of Law Weekend, Cai Daotong said that the rule of law in China is an important part of Chinese path to modernization and an important symbol of Chinese path to modernization. The construction of the rule of law includes numerous contents and levels, among which criminal rule of law is the difficulty and focus, and also the "shortest barrel" to measure the level and level of rule of law construction. Because the realization of fairness and justice in criminal cases is the most complex, difficult, sensitive, and important, it concerns every citizen's judgment and understanding of fairness and justice. It is an important task and responsibility of criminal justice to ensure the basic human rights of suspect, defendants and criminals while realizing social protection. He said that China's constitutional system endows the procuratorial organs with the responsibility and power of legal supervision, that is, through the establishment of a legal supervision system firewall, to ensure the fairness and impartiality of every judicial judgment to the greatest extent possible, so that errors or improper judicial judgments can be corrected. This system is established through the exercise of the prosecutorial power in criminal cases, so that every judicial case can be subject to legal supervision, maximizing the realization that those who are innocent should be punished lightly, those who commit minor crimes should be punished lightly, and those who commit serious crimes must be punished severely, so that fairness and justice are truly reflected in every judicial case. He believes that the 10 typical cases of criminal prosecution released by the Supreme People's Procuratorate are the latest performance report of the national procuratorial organs actively fulfilling their legal supervision functions and responding to social concerns. (New Society)