Legal Issues on Yao Jiaxin’s Case

Yao Jiaxin’s Case

• Yao was a college student.One day he drove to visit his girlfriend.On his way back he run into a woman named Zhang Miao.Zhang was not badly hurt at first and wouldn’t die from the car accident.But Yao killed her by stabbing her for six times.

• Interview with Yao

Inference method

Deductive reasoning 演绎推理Major premise( 大前提 )—statutesMinor premise( 小前提 )—details of a caseConclusion(subject 主体、 object 客

体、 subjective aspect 主观方面、 objective aspect 客观方面 )

Common Law System ： inductive reasoning 归纳推理 --precedent

Issue one:traffic crime(交通肇事罪 )

Criminal Law of the People's Republic of ChinaArticle 133

A person who violates the laws and regulations on administration of communications or transportation, thus causing a serious accident and resulting in serious bodily injury or death or serious losses to public or private property, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years or criminal detention; if he flees after causing a communication or transportation accident or has any other especially flagrant circumstance, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years and not more than seven years and; if his fleeing causes another person's death, to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than seven years.

a serious accident

（ 1 ） cause one death or at least three serious injury,be wholly or mainly responsible for the traffic accident

（ 2 ） cause at least three death and be half responsible for the traffic accident

（ 3 ） cause direct losses to public or private property and be mainly responsible for the traffic accident and unable to compensate the losses for more than 300 thousand Yuan.

flagrant circumstance

（ 1 ） cause at least two death or more than five bad injury,be wholly or mainly responsible for the traffic accident.

（ 2 ） cause at least six death and be half responsible for the trafficx accident.

（ 3 ） cause direct losses to public or private property and be wholly or mainly responsible for the traffic accident and unable to compensate the losses for more than 600 thousand Yuan.

exceptions

The actor who cause more than one serious injury in a traffic accident and be wholly or mainly responsible for the accident shall be convicted of traffic crime in one of the following situation: 　　

（ 1 ） driving after drinking or taking addictive drugs 　　（ 2 ） driving without driving license 　　（ 3 ） driving while knowing that the safty device in the

car is broken（ 4 ） driving while knowing that the car is plate less( 无牌

照 )or scraped( 报废 ) 　　（ 5 ） seriouly overloading（ 6 ） flee in order to escape Justice

Requirements

Subject:more than 16 years oldArticle 17 A person who has attained the age of sixteen years shall

bear criminal responsibility if he commits a crime.

A person who has attained the age of fourteen years and is under the age of sixteen years shall bear criminal responsibility if he commits a crime of intentional homicide, intentionally injuring another person to serious bodily injury or death, rape, robbery, selling drugs, arson, explosion or spreading poison.

• A ， who is 15 years old,he should bear the responsibility of which following crime:

A death caused by unlawful detentionTake part in white slavery and rape the

womanA death caused by kidnappingsnatching with lethal weapon

• subjective elements of crime （主观方面）Intentional offenseActual intentIndirect intentNegligenceCareless negligenceReckless negligence

objective aspect of crime( 客观方面 ):1.violates the laws and regulations2.causing a serious accident and resulting in

serious bodily injury or death or serious losses to public or private property

3.Cause-and-effect relationship between action and result

4.public transportation only(at workplace,car washing)

hit-and-run 交通肇事逃逸

Hit-and-run means that in the following situation the doer flee in order to escape justice: ：（ 1 ） cause one death or at least three serious injury,be wholly or mainly

responsible for the traffic accident（ 2 ） cause at least three death and be half responsible for the traffic accident（ 3 ） cause direct losses to public or private property and be mainly

responsible for the traffic accident and unable to compensate the losses for more than 300 thousand Yuan. 　　

（ 4 ） driving after dringking or taking addictive drugs and causes at least one bad injury,be wholly or mainly responsible for the accident;

（ 5 ） driving without driving license and causes at least one bad injury,be whlly or mainly responsible for the accident; 　　

（ 6 ） driving while knowing that the safty device in the car is broken and cause at least one bad injury,be wholly or mainly responsible for the accident;

（ 7 ） driving while knowing that the car is plate less( 无牌照 )or scraped( 报废 ) and cause at least one bad injury,be wholly or mainly responsible for the accident; 　　

（ 8 ） seriouly overloading and cause at least one bad injury,be wholly or mainly responsible for the accident;

result in death vs intentional homicide

• …if his fleeing causes another person's death, to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than seven years.

• In order to escape Justice after causing a traffic accident,the doers who take the victim away from the site of accident and hide or abandon the victim ,leading to victim’s death or seriously body injury,should be convicted in accordance with Article 232 and Paragraph 2 Article 234 in the Criminal Law of PRC,be convicted and punished of the crime of intentional homicide or intentional injury.

• Negative behaviour only• Take the victim away;hide or abandon

drive under the influence and drunk driving

Paragraph 2 Article133Racing driving or drunk driving should be subject to detention and a fine. (the Eighth Criminal Amendment)

Road Traffic Safety Law      ● 饮酒后驾驶机动车的，处暂扣六个月机动车驾驶证，并处一千元以上二

千元以下罚款。因饮酒后驾驶机动车被处罚，再次饮酒后驾驶机动车的，处十日以下拘留，并处一千元以上二千元以下罚款，吊销机动车驾驶证。

●醉酒驾驶机动车的，由公安机关交通管理部门约束至酒醒，吊销机动车驾驶证，依法追究刑事责任；五年内不得重新取得机动车驾驶证。

●饮酒后驾驶营运机动车的，处十五日拘留，并处五千元罚款，吊销机动车驾驶证，五年内不得重新取得机动车驾驶证；醉酒驾驶营运机动车的，由公安机关交通管理部门约束至酒醒，吊销机动车驾驶证，依法追究刑事责任；十年内不得重新取得机动车驾驶证，重新取得机动车驾驶证后，不得驾驶营运机动车。

●饮酒后或者醉酒驾驶机动车发生重大交通事故，构成犯罪的，依法追究刑事责任，并由公安机关交通管理部门吊销机动车驾驶证，终生不得重新取得机动车驾驶证。

Murder out of rage（激情杀人）

• It is different from intentional murder,the murderer commit the crime in the heat of passion which is usually aroused by the victim,such as provocation or irritation.

• It should fit in the following conditions:• The victim made some big mistakes and cause

strong emotional mood swing of the murderer.• The murder lose control for a while because of the

emotional stimulation. 　　• Murder on the spot rather than some time later. 　

　

• Murder out of rage is actually still a kind of intentional homocide.

• Can you find the provision about heat of passion in Chinese laws?

• Do you think it could be a reason of commutation( 减刑 ) ？ Why or why not ？

• In our jurisprudence ， it is not a reason of commutation.It’s merely a criminal investigation term,used to describe subjective motive( 主观动机 )and subjective culpability of the mind （主观恶性）

Criminal proceeding with incidental civil action

Criminal Procedural Law of PRC

Article 99• If a victim has suffered material losses as a

result of the defendant's criminal act,he shall have the right to file an incidental civil action during the course of the criminal proceeding.

• If losses have been caused to State property or collective property ， the People's Procuratorate may file an incidental civil action while initiating a public prosecution.

Article 102

• An incidental civil action shall be heard together with the criminal case. Only for the purpose of preventing excessive delay in a trial of the criminal case may the same judicial organization, after completing the trial of the criminal case ， continue to hear the incidental civil action.

Legal notice

1. One could file an incidental civil action only when the criminal case is initiated.

2. Only material losses are included here.Losses for personality benefit,for reputation,and mental damages are excluded.

3. One can’t file incidental civil action in cases of robbery,theft and other property crimes cause the property should be returned.

Voluntary Surrender

• Article 67(Criminal Law of PRC) If a criminal, after committing a crime, surrenders himself voluntarily and truthfully confesses his crime, it is the voluntary surrender. A criminal who conducts voluntary surrender may be given a lighter or mitigated punishment. Those whose crimes are relatively minor may be exempted from punishments.

If a suspected criminal or defendant under compulsory measures or a criminal who serves a sentence truthfully confesses his other crimes that are unknown to a judicial organ, it shall be treated as the voluntary surrender.

Dicussion

• From the video, what do you know about Yao’s behavior after committing the crime?Can we classified it as turning himself in?Why/why not?

Thank You!