Beijing News, 2009-07-17
While applauding the Beijing Xicheng District Procuratorate's new effort to encourage more witness testimony at criminal trials with “economic compensation,” an op-ed in the Beijing News notes that such measures are vastly insufficient. If China's criminal trial procedures are to make the transition to an adversarial system that reforms twelve years ago called for, then much greater investments must be made in creating a complete witness protection system. Future revisions to the criminal procedure law should include clear and effective evidentiary rules that stipulate when witnesses must testify during trials, the consequences of their not doing so, and the validity of pre-trial recorded testimony. In response to critics who call such proposals too costly, the op-ed cites the United States Supreme Court's recent decision allowing defendants to question forensic analysts during trial, despite the dissenting justices' worries about increased costs.
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