Manichean police views lead to torture of suspects
- Source: Global Times
- [22:50 May 17 2010]
- Comments
Qu Xuewu
Editor's Note:
Zhao Zuohai, a 57-year-old farmer from Henan Province, was released on May 9 after being wrongly jailed for 11 years for a murder that didn't even happen. Two police officers who tortured a confession out of him were arrested recently, and a third officer is still at large.
The following is an interview between the Qiangguo Forum of people.com.cn (PO) and Qu Xuewu (Qu), a researcher at the Institute of Legal Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, on the deficiencies of China's legal system.
PO: What needs to be changed in China's legal system?
Qu: The first thing that must be changed is police culture. Torture during interrogation has been a part of Chinese legal culture for thousands of years, and it's important to reshape the police culture to eradicate this.
Public security organs often consider the discovery and confirmation of crime as their top task. They neglect the idea that they also have to guarantee the suspects' basic human rights.
Whether humanity is more important than efficiency is a controversial topic among criminal law experts.
Some say that efficiency should be prioritized, because only through promptly solving cases can the police crack down on crime and human rights actually be protected.
I think there is bias here, however. From my perspective, human rights don't merely mean protecting the interests of the majority. Any individual, whether he is a suspect or a criminal, has the right to personal dignity and security. China has done far from enough to guarantee these.
Many police officers tend to believe that a suspect or a defendant is automatically a bad person who deserves no humanity.
We have to change this stereotype.
We also need to weigh procedural justice and substantive justice - the right to a fair investigation and trial, versus an actual outcome where the guilty are punished. Sometimes police officers feel overworked, and so use whatever means they want to achieve their goals.
In doing so, they are actually prioritizing substantive justice over procedural justice. However, the latter is very important to avoid people being falsely accused or wrongly convicted, because in that case no concept of justice is served at all.
The second problem is that our entire legal culture also needs reform. We still don't have a people-orientated concept of law. We are building a better nation and a better society to provide individuals with maximum freedom, maximum realization of their personal values and maximum protection of human rights.
Therefore, punishment, as a form of public power, shouldn't be excessively used at the price of sacrificing citizens' freedom, rights and realization of their personal values.
I've come to value the thought of British philosopher Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) that moderate laws can make national life more humane and help its government win respect from the citizens.
