The incident sparked public attention and discussion for two reasons:
First, this is a non-motivated murder that is purely a disaster, and Shen is a victim of a completely random violent attack;
Second, Wanmou suffers from mental illness and can be exempted from criminal responsibility in accordance with the Criminal Law.
This makes people panic at the same time that “I may also become a victim”, and the law of “the person who hurts me is mentally ill can not be punished” is even more angry. Some media even suggested that ” spiritual patients killing people is a solution to the problem .”
But in fact, whether it is from the law or from our practice, mental patient crime is not without a solution .
1. Does the case require psychiatric identification?
In the previous article on Zhang buckle case, “The second trial of Zhang buckle case: a failed psychiatric appraisal application ” , we said that because mental patients can often escape the death penalty in criminal cases, the judiciary is often not willing to initiate psychiatric identification.
Nearly the case of smuggling and murder, such as Qiu Xinghua’s murder case, is that the defense insists on applying for mental illness identification, but it has never been adopted by the judicial authorities.
In general, the main reasons for the judiciary to initiate psychiatric identification include:
The suspect himself or the family has a family history of mental illness
The behavior of the suspect is obviously different from ordinary people.
Long-term alcohol abuse, drug abuse or other psychotropic substances
In this incident, Wanmou has a hospital diagnosed with mania and has a Disability Certificate with a third-grade mental disability, which is enough to prove that he may be a mental patient. In this case, the judiciary from the procedure From a fair perspective, it is also necessary to conduct a psychiatric identification of Wan.
After all, in the process of investigation, the judiciary must collect evidence on the suspect’s guilt and guilt, and also have the obligation to collect evidence that the suspect is not guilty or guilty.
Second, this mental patient is not a mental patient
For a long time, in the topic of mental patients, the public’s impression is that “spiritual patients can escape criminal responsibility.”
In fact, this is a dull impression. This misunderstanding confuses medical psychiatric patients with mental patients in criminal law.
Medically mental patients are not necessarily mental patients in criminal law.
In medicine, as long as the patient has a certain mental illness (such as depression), it can be called a mental patient. Whose psychology is still not a problem this year?
In the criminal law, only those who have weakened their ability to recognize and control due to serious mental illnesses will be relieved of their criminal responsibility due to the lack of criminal responsibility.
For those who are mentally ill, but to a lesser extent, which is not enough to affect their ability to recognize and control, they still have to bear full criminal responsibility.
For example, in this case, Wan’s mania and tertiary mental disability are not too serious in real life (Wan’s workers say that they have no mental illness in their daily lives), although they will have the ability to recognize and control. It must have an impact, but this influence may not be enough to lead to his commitment to criminal responsibility.
Mental patients may not be in the onset of illness at the time of committing a crime.
Manic mania is an intermittent episodes of mental illness in the attack, the patient will be in high spirits, energetic performance, speech by much, an increase in activity, accompanied by severe hallucinations, delusions, stress and other symptoms; and the onset of a period of After the time, the patient will enter an intermittent period of normal mental state .
The Criminal Law stipulates that ” intermittent mental patients who commit crimes while in normal spirits shall be criminally responsible. ”
Judging from the occurrence process of this case, Wanmou prepared tools beforehand, and then chose to escape after murder. There is a clear sense of escape, and there is no obvious external manifestation of high emotions (such as abnormal excitement). Wan may not be at the time of committing the crime. Incidence period.
Third, mental illness is not amulet
In 1981, John Hinckley, the murderer of US President Ronald Reagan, escaped criminal responsibility for mental illness, but Sinclair was acquitted (not criminally responsible) and was sent to a psychiatric hospital for continuous treatment. free.
Similar compulsory medical procedures are also provided in China’s Criminal Law and the Criminal Procedure Law:
For mental patients who commit major violent crimes, even if they are not criminally responsible for the inability to identify or control their actions (persons without criminal responsibility), they are sent to a specialized treatment institution for compulsory medical treatment.
Therefore, even if a mentally ill person is completely immune to criminal responsibility, he may not be able to regain his freedom, but will be imprisoned in a psychiatric hospital in disguise.
This is also a punishment, but in criminal law, it is not called “criminal responsibility” but “security penalty.”
Moreover, even a mental patient (a person with limited criminal responsibility) who is identified as partially deprived of his ability to recognize and control may not be able to reduce his criminal responsibility.
The criminal law stipulates that the crimes of such people may be “ slightly or lightly punished”. This means that it is also “can” not to be light and not to mitigate punishment.
One year ago, on June 28, 2018, Huang Yichuan was murdered at the entrance of Pubei Road Campus of Shanghai Shiwai Primary School, causing two students to die due to excessive injuries.
After being arrested, Huang Yichuan was identified as suffering from schizophrenia. He had limited criminal responsibility when committing crimes and lacked complete ability to recognize and control.
However, the Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court made a first-instance judgment on this case on May 23, 2019, and still sentenced Huang Yichuan to death. The court wrote in the judgment:
Huang Yichuan is premeditated and prepared to carry out serious violence against innocent children near the campus. His criminal motives are extremely despicable, the criminal means are extremely cruel, the consequences of crime are extremely serious, and the social impact is extremely bad. Although Huang Yichuan was identified as having a mental illness, he was assessed as having limited criminal responsibility. However, given his extremely serious crimes, his personal risk is extremely high, and his mental illness has no significant influence on his ability to identify and control his or her behavior during the crime. It should be severely punished according to law .
For the crimes of mental patients, whether it is legal provisions or the operation of judicial practice, they are fully prepared.
Mental illness is not the amulet of the perpetrator.
4. How does the injured party defend its rights?
The law will make a fair judgment on the mentally ill person who commits the crime. In contrast, what is more important is how the victim should defend his legitimate rights and interests in such cases.
In criminal cases, the rights and interests of the injured party have two aspects, one is the identification and handling of criminal cases, and the other is the claim for compensation. In this regard, we have done in the previous article, “What can lawyers do for victims of criminal cases? It has been discussed in detail and will not be repeated.
In terms of the specific crimes of mental patients, the injured party needs to pay attention to a few points:
The injured party also has the right to choose the psychiatric appraisal agency and may also challenge the psychiatric identification.
This is a very important litigation right. If it is considered that the psychiatric appraisal institution selected by the investigating agency may have a black-box operation or is dissatisfied with the appraisal conclusion, the injured party may also present its own reasons for re-selecting the appraisal institution or re-evaluating.
The injured party can list the guardian of the mental patient as a civil defendant.
In almost all cases of mental patient crimes, guardians have poor supervision (even without supervision). Although it is impossible to pursue criminal responsibility for its inadequate supervision, in the case of civil claims, the guardian has to bear the corresponding liability for the lack of supervision.
Even if the other party is unable to compensate, the injured party can apply for judicial assistance.
Some mental patients or their families have no financial ability to compensate the injured party. In this case, even if the court makes a judgment, there is no possibility of enforcement. The injured party often also urgently needs a compensation for treatment.
In this dilemma, the injured party may also choose to apply for judicial assistance to the judicial authorities.
In the judicial practice of our country, there has always been a practice of granting judicial assistance to poor parties.
In January 2019, the Supreme People’s Court successively issued the “Regulations on the Procedures for Handling National Judicial Assistance Cases of the People’s Court (Trial)”, the “Types of National Judicial Assistance Documents of the People’s Court (Trial)”, and the Working Rules of the Judicial Relief Committee of the Supreme People’s Court (Trial Implementation) ), further clarifying the process of issuing judicial aid.
Compared with mental patients, whether they can be sentenced to death, when the life is forced to go nowhere, the victim side needs this system more.
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