1. Japan's adjudication system is applicable to the trial of major criminal cases at first instance. Specifically, it includes: cases sentenced to death or life imprisonment; Cases in which the victim died of intentional crime and was sentenced to 1 year or more. According to the regulations, if the case falls within the scope of adjudication, then the court should adopt the method of adjudication, and the defendant has no right to choose whether to conduct adjudication. This is completely different from the practice that the defendant chooses whether the case should be tried by jurors in common law countries.
2. For a case that should be tried by a judge, if the person or property of the judge or alternate judge and their relatives are threatened, resulting in their inability to perform jury duties, the court may decide to try it by a judge. At the same time, if the case does not fall within the scope of the adjudication system, but the court thinks it is more appropriate to combine the tried case with the adjudicated case, it may decide to combine the tried case with the adjudicated case.
3. Some cases are not within the jurisdiction of the referee at the time of prosecution. However, due to the change of the cause of action (referring to the criminal facts clearly recorded in the indictment), it has become the scope of the referee's trial. At this time, the trial procedure should be changed and the referee's trial method should be adopted; On the other hand, if the case originally belonged to the referee, but the cause of action has changed during the trial, it is not within the scope of the referee's trial. At this time, the referee's trial can still be carried out without changing the trial method.
Second, Japan's criminal trial procedure
1. Referees and alternate referees shall participate in the trial activities according to the notified date. In court, judges and judges sit together, the judge sits in the middle of the judge's bench, the presiding judge sits in the middle of the judge's bench, the 64 judges sit on both sides of the judge respectively, and the alternate judges sit behind the judges. Before the trial, the judges shall not contact the litigation materials of both the prosecution and the defense. During the trial of a case, the referee shall not contact the media, nor shall he publish or disclose the relevant case.
2. The trial procedure of Japanese cases is usually divided into several stages, such as opening statement, evidence investigation, victim statement and final summary.
3. The program begins. The initial procedure begins with the prosecutor, who explains the contents of complaints and claims simply and clearly. The defense policy puts forward corresponding defense opinions on the content of the prosecution. Through the trial procedure, we can reflect the disputes and similar cases sorted out in the pre-trial preparation procedure, which is conducive to the referee entering the trial state as soon as possible.
4. Evidence investigation. Evidence investigation should focus on the disputes sorted out in the pre-trial preparation procedure, take the dispute as the center, and can't produce evidence outside the dispute. In evidence investigation, criminal facts and sentencing facts should be strictly separated. When investigating evidence, the court should investigate evidence through words. Participants in the proceedings can display evidence on the big screen with appropriate photos, drawings or models. In the process of evidence investigation, judges, like judges, can interrogate witnesses, experts or defendants. If it is necessary to question witnesses or other personnel outside the court, there shall be judges and alternate judges present.
5. Victim's statement. In the case tried by the referee, the victim, his legal representative and entrusted lawyer may apply to the prosecutor to participate in the trial procedure; The prosecutor shall not refuse unless there is a justifiable reason. The victim sits next to the prosecutor in the court, participates in the trial all the time, and can also entrust a lawyer to appear in court on his behalf. The victims and their lawyers who appear in court may present their opinions in court. With the consent of the presiding judge, the victim may state his opinions or ask witnesses to give sentencing opinions to the defendant. The referee may ask the victim or his legal representative.
6. Final summary. The prosecution shall make final comments on the facts of the case and the application of the law, and put forward specific sentencing opinions and reasons. The final statement of the defense is also divided into facts and laws. Among them, the fact part mainly refutes the facts mentioned by the prosecution and points out its contradictions; The legal part puts forward corresponding views on the legal application and sentencing opinions put forward by the prosecution. The final statements of both parties should be concise and clear, so that the judges and judges present can accurately understand their claims.
Third, Japan's criminal trial penalty system.
1, please entrust the referee. Jurors or alternate jurors who seek help in matters related to their duties shall be punished as the crime of seeking help from judges, and shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than two years or a fine of not more than 200,000 yen. The crime of asking for help from the referee is a kind of behavior crime. As long as a criminal act occurs, it is a crime whether it is accepted or not.
2. The crime of coercive judgment. Those who coerce referees or alternate referees, original referees or alternate referees and their relatives by meeting, delivering written materials, making phone calls or other means shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than two years or a fine of not more than 200,000 yen.
3. Referee's crime of leaking secrets. A judge or alternate judge who divulges the secrets of a case shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than six months or a fine of not more than 500,000 yen.
4. The crime of disclosing the referee's name. Prosecutors or defenders, as well as people who have held positions, defendants or defendants, who disclose the names and related contents of referee candidates without justifiable reasons, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than 1 year or a fine of not more than 500,000 yen.
5, the referee candidate false records. Candidates who make false records on the inquiry ticket and submit them to the court, or make false statements about the inquiry during the selection procedure of referees, shall be fined up to 500,000 yen.
6. In addition, in any of the following circumstances, a fine of 654.38 million+yen will be imposed:
(1) The summoned candidate refuses to participate in the selection without justifiable reasons;
(2) The referee or alternate referee refuses to take the oath without justifiable reasons;
(3) The referee or alternate referee fails to attend the hearing date without justifiable reasons.
The above is the relevant content of the Japanese Criminal Trial Process. From the above, it can be seen that the process of criminal trial in Japan is pre-trial preparation procedure, participation in trial procedure and case evaluation related procedure. If you still have questions about the above contents, you can consult a professional lawyer online.