Latest! Court reports "Lijiang college student beaten by over 10 people, seriously injured in self-defense, sentenced"
From the "Yu Huan case" to the "Kunshan counter-kill case," in recent years many media outlets have exploited public sensitivity to "self-defense" incidents to make a big story, which is both a joy and a concern. Recently, the case of "Lijiang college student beaten by over 10 people, fights back causing serious injuries, sentenced" has sparked heated debate, pushing "self-defense" back into the public spotlight.
Event review:
According to relevant media reports, around 1 a.m. on November 19, 2018, Cheng Zhaodong, a 22-year-old junior at a university in Lijiang, came out of a restaurant in Gucheng District, Lijiang City, and was surrounded by over 10 men who also came out. During the conflict, Cheng Zhaodong, who had fallen to the ground, grabbed random tools to fight back, ultimately injuring five men, two of them seriously. Cheng Zhaodong then fled the scene. After dawn, he was arrested by police and later prosecuted for intentional injury.
On October 14, 2019, the Gucheng District Court of Lijiang City issued a first-instance verdict, finding Cheng Zhaodong guilty of intentional injury, sentencing him to three years in prison with a four-year reprieve, and ordering him to compensate the victims a total of 27 yuan. After the verdict, the original defendant Cheng Zhaodong and the original civil plaintiffs Wang Yukuan and Dai Qian appealed.
The Lijiang Intermediate People's Court reported on the 10th that after accepting the case on October 30, it notified the Lijiang People's Court, Cheng Zhaodong's defense lawyer, and the litigation representatives of Wang Yukuan and Dai Qian to review the case files, legally interrogated Cheng Zhaodong, questioned Wang Yukuan and Dai Qian, and held a pre-trial meeting on December 9.
Currently, the second-instance trial is ongoing. The court will strictly handle the case fairly according to law, and the trial results will be promptly announced to the public.
On the determination of justifiable defense
A lawyer from Guangdong Zhiming Law Firm stated,
Justifiable defense is divided into special defense and general defense.
Special defense refers to defensive actions taken by a citizen against ongoing violent crimes such as assault, murder, robbery, rape, kidnapping, and other serious violent offenses endangering personal safety, where causing injury or death to the unlawful infringer does not constitute excessive defense and incurs no criminal liability.
General defense refers to actions taken to stop ongoing unlawful infringement in order to protect the state, public interests, one's own or another's person, property, or other rights, where causing harm to the unlawful infringer constitutes justifiable defense and incurs no criminal liability.
The biggest difference between the two is that special defense does not involve the issue of excessive defense, whereas in the process of general defense, if the action clearly exceeds the necessary limit and causes significant harm, it is excessive defense and incurs criminal liability.
China's justifiable defense system must be directed against ongoing unlawful infringement, while in "mutual assault," both parties have the intent and conduct to attack and infringe upon each other, also violating each other's rights, thus it does not meet the constitutive elements of justifiable defense.
Of course, it cannot be generalized. If one party in a fight stops attacking, begs for mercy, or flees, and the other party continues to assault, then the party that stopped attacking can exercise legitimate self-defense.
Many details of the Cheng Zhaodong case are unknown to us. The positions of media workers and court judges inevitably lead to differences in their determination of the facts, so it is difficult to draw a conclusion now. The onlookers should first calm down.
