Favorable to a defendant to overturn an adverse judgment; loosen an application for retrial
E020807Y6 Sep. 2002（E37）
There will be significant change to the criminal retrial system. The Judicial Yuan decided to loosen the requirements to apply for retrial favorable to a sentenced person, and to limit the requirements to apply for retrial adverse to a sentenced person. The most striking point is that retrial will be allowed as long as definite “new facts” which are considered able to overturn the original judgment adverse to the sentenced person are found.
In accordance with the relevant rules of the current Code of Criminal Procedure about “the circumstances where an application for retrial may be made for the benefit of a sentenced person,” an application for retrial may be made if definite new evidence has been discovered that a person who received the judgment of “guilty” should have been adjudicated “not guilty”, “exempt from prosecution”, “exempt from punishment”, or that his offense was less serious than specified in the original judgment. The Judicial Yuan indicated that the criminal retrial system mainly served the purpose of correcting error/s in the facts determined by the original judgment. For the purpose of discovering truth, it will be incomplete and contrary to the spirit of discovering truth if an application for retrial is permitted only when new evidence is discovered.
The current provisions specify that an application for retrial not for the benefit of a sentenced person may be made after a judgment of “guilty”, “not guilty”, “exempt from prosecution”, “case not entertained” becomes final if criminal facts adverse to the sentenced person are again discovered from the confession made by the sentenced person during the proceedings or otherwise and such facts warrant a judgment of “guilty” or a more severe punishment. To limit the requirements to apply for retrial adverse to a sentenced person, the relevant provisions will be amended as that an application for retrial may be filed only in circumstances where after the accused was found “not guilty” in the original judgment, but criminal facts which warrants a judgment of “guilty are discovered.
Source: Liberty Times 08/07/2002
