[quote=“RobinTaiwan”]Charlie, I know you can’t read Chinese and I don’t want to spend time putting together poor translations. I’ll just let you know that the judge addressed this very issue in his ruling. In layman’s terms, it sounds like this… Section 345, article 678 of the procedure code, the burden of proof lies with the defendant. The defendant failed to prove his innocence with substantial evidence and he is therefore considered guilty.
Have a friend translate it for you.
PS: It’s not a homicide trial. Dean was convicted for public endangerment, among other things.[/quote]
Well, now I’m completely lost. I apologize and concede that you are right and I am wrong. Apparently (and regardless of the reason why) Mr. Dean was under a burden to prove his innocence. Besides, as it turns out I wasn’t even clear on what he was charged with.
I can’t find an Article 678 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Republic of China in any source that I have access to at this time, but I don’t have access to the whole thing in its revised form. I have the old Code of Criminal Procedure from Major Laws of the Republic of China on Taiwan, Bilingual Edition, but it has a publication date of 1991, so it’s not reliable as to current law. The Code of Criminal Procedure was revised a few years ago, and I only have access to a portion of the revision of the Code (through Article 343), the one I’ve linked to a couple of times in this thread. Additionally, I thought he was indicted for some form of homicide (whatever else he may have been indicted for). So I’m lost. I’m clueless.
I’m now looking at Major Laws of the Republic of China on Taiwan, Bilingual Edition, the outdated one (1991). In this old edition, the Code of Criminal Procedure is divided into parts, chapters, sections, and articles. Regardless of any kinds of divisions, the articles are numbered continuously. In this 1991 edition there are nine parts and a total of 512 articles. The number of chapters per part varies, with the maximum number of chapters being thirteen, contained in Part I. Part I, Chapter XII, entitled “Evidence,” contains four sections. As far as I can tell, Part I, Chapter XII, is the only chapter in this edition that contains sections. Section 1 contains old Article 161, which reads:
So even in the old Code of Criminal Prodedure, it appears the burden was on the prosecutor. Still, I take your word and the judge’s word that Section 345, Article 678, says what the judge says it says, and concede that you are right and I am wrong.
The revised articles that I linked to earlier in this thread go only through Article 343. At the end of the document are the following words, in red:
Maybe Article 344 and following are somewhere on the Internet, but I haven’t found them. I’ve found another source for the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Republic of China–the website of WIPO, the World Intellectual Property Organization. But its Code also goes only through Article 343. Here are WIPO’s Code of Criminal Procedure articles: wipo.int/wipolex/en/text.jsp?file_id=190881
In summary, and to repeat: You’re right, and I’m wrong.