| Cases of organized crime involve multiple defendants and multiple charges that are closely related to each other, and in the trial of such cases the court must ascertain the state and framework of the criminal organization. Divided trial of cases of organized crime that involve too many defendants can improve the order of trial, avoid excessive delay, guarantee the quality of examination and debate at court, reduce the difficulty of trial, and embody criminal policies. However, the dividing of trial can bring about some prominent problems, such as fragmentation of trial, limitation on the cross-examination among different defendants, administrative features of judgments, and especially, violations of the due process, such as “evaluation of evidence without examination” and “trial in absentia”. In judicial practice, there are such problems as random and excessive dividing of trials, lack of guarantee of due process of the defendants, etc. To improve the system of divided trial of cases of organized crime, China should adhere to the principle of “one case tried by the same court”, and allow divided trial only as a necessary exception. When the trial has to be divided, the dividing should follow the logic of the case and rules of litigation; rights of defendants should be sufficiently protected and cases in which the defendants plead guilty and accept the punishments should be cautiously dealt with; and attention should be paid to the composition of the trial organization and the coordination between different trials. Confessions of defendants in one trial should be regarded as confessions instead of witness testimony in other trials. Meanwhile, the rules on the combination and dividing of related trials should be further improved. |
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