Procuratorial Forensic Medicine: Grasping the Knife and Pen of Justice
Forensic doctors are specialized personnel in judicial organs who use medical technology to identify and identify persons, corpses, articles or substances related to cases. Their paper identification often determines the nature of a person’s crime and non-crime, misdemeanor and felony, and involves the future direction of a person or even a family. Therefore, for each identification, they are like walking on thin ice.
Procuratorial Forensic Medicine: Grasping the Knife and Pen of Justice
For the identification of casualties in criminal cases, the procuratorial forensic doctor should conduct a "retrial check".
The picture is provided by Yang Jie, a forensic doctor of Kunming Procuratorate, Yunnan Province.
This newspaper (reporter Guo Meihong)"I’m sorry, I’ll reply you later. I just received two cases, both of which are urgent. " Before leaving work, Shang Yanjun, a forensic doctor of Luan County Procuratorate in Hebei Province, sent a text message to the reporter. Fourteen years ago, because of her "super professional identity" with forensic doctors, she "switched careers" halfway to join the professional group of procuratorial forensic doctors.
Forensic medicine, a profession dealing with injury and death, is full of mystery to ordinary people.
Procuratorial forensic doctors are a special team in the procuratorate. Their battlefields are autopsy room and medical equipment room. In addition to restoring the truth of casualties by meticulous and exquisite professional skills like ordinary forensic doctors, they also undertake a special task-review and supervision, that is, they have to "review and check" the casualty identification in criminal cases; They should be involved in the identification of casualties in detention centers, detention centers and prisons.
Some people are released on bail for coronary heart disease by taking atropine, some people suddenly fall to the ground and die when being questioned, some people deliberately identify minor injuries as minor injuries, and write serious injuries as minor injuries … All these require them to hold on to the knife and pencil of justice, expose the false appearance with excellent professional accumulation and professional ethics, and restore the truth.
Their paper appraisal often determines the nature of a person’s crime and non-crime, misdemeanor and felony, and involves the future direction of a person or even a family. Therefore, for each appraisal, they are like walking on thin ice, because a slight mistake may lead to unjust, false and wrong cases.
"disobedient son" kills father
Why only sentenced to three years?
A few years ago, a death case occurred in Dongxia Town, Yunxiao County, Fujian Province, in which Zhou injured his father Zhou Moushan. After the case happened, the news media made a lot of reports on the incident of "disobedient son killing father". For a time, public opinion accused his son of "going against the road and annihilating human nature". It seems that it is not enough for the people to be angry if Zhou is not shot. The case was submitted to Zhangzhou City Procuratorate, and forensic doctor Liu Longqing (who was awarded the first class merit by the Supreme People’s Procuratorate and won the title of "Watching Justice-Top Ten Prosecutors Favorite by the Masses") examined the injuries of the deceased, and without saying anything, he and the case handlers drove more than 100 kilometers to the crime scene. Liu Longqing frowned when he learned that the body had been cremated.
The original identification was that the deceased died of cerebral hemorrhage, but the autopsy photos could not show where the bleeding point was. Liu Longqing talked with relatives and neighbors of the deceased many times. When he learned from the relatives of the deceased that the deceased had a history of heart disease, he seemed to learn something from it.
After carefully reviewing the inspection report and combining the condition of the deceased before his death, Liu Longqing boldly proposed that the injury behavior of his son Zhou was not the direct cause of his father’s death.
He further explained that the deceased had a 4cm frustration laceration on the forehead. The original identification thought that the deceased died of severe craniocerebral injury. After examination, it was found that there was no fracture in the skull and skull base, no bleeding in the epidural, subdural and subarachnoid space, and no injury and bleeding in the brain and brain stem. Therefore, it was considered that there was insufficient basis for the death of craniocerebral injury. Combined with Zhou’s severe coronary heart disease before his death, he suggested that he died of a heart attack caused by emotional excitement and forehead trauma (minor injuries) after a fierce quarrel with his son.
"Human life, forensic examination of the body, is actually a dialogue between the living and the dead. What the body tells you, the forensic doctor will pass it on to the judicial personnel through the expert opinion. The process of identification is not that the forensic doctor is talking, but that the body is talking. If forensic doctors can’t maintain their independence and scientificity, but succumb to public opinion or agree with empiricism, it is not only an embarrassment to the profession, but also a trampling on judicial justice. " Liu Longqing said.
Finally, according to Liu Longqing’s appraisal opinion, the court of first instance sentenced his son Zhou to three years’ imprisonment for intentional injury causing minor injuries. The murder case that caused a lot of noise together was handled impartially because of Liu Longqing’s meticulous review.
Sudden death in interrogation room
In fact, it is not "complicated"
Jin Yankui of the Technical Information Research Center of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate has been a forensic doctor for 18 years. Most of the casualties he intervened in occurred in the supervision places, among which there were many cases of conflicts between prisoners or deaths caused by their own diseases. He said, after all, there are fewer people extorting confessions by torture now, unlike when management was not standardized in earlier years.
However, casualties in prisons or detention centers are easy to arouse suspicion from the outside world, so they, as professional forensic doctors in legal supervision departments, will intervene in the appraisal at the first time. "The prison administration said that the prisoner died of illness, but most of the family members did not recognize it, saying that it was healthy when he entered. You said it was illness, I don’t believe it. This requires us to inspect the forensic identification of how to die. "
Three years ago, a suspect died in a police detention room in a city in Hebei Province. The party was a female employee of a company, who claimed that she could get the land at a cheap price. Someone gave her more than 200,000 yuan, but after waiting for a long time, she didn’t see her take the land, so she called the police. The public security police suspected that she had committed fraud and took her to the detention room. She was interrogated from 8 pm to 11 pm. I had to take photos at the end of the interrogation, but I didn’t expect her to suddenly fall to the ground (there was a monitoring display).
No one hit her, how could she suddenly fall to the ground? What’s the problem? The police were in a hurry and quickly moved her to the soft sofa in the opposite room (but there was no monitoring in this room) and let her lie down for a while. A few minutes later, the suspect died.
Sick of death? Was tortured to death? In order to find out the cause of death of the suspect, the local prosecutor later entrusted the forensic identification of the Supreme Inspection Technology Center. Jin Yankui participated in the autopsy all the time, and he concluded that the deceased died of pulmonary embolism. "She is not too old, about 40 years old, but she is very fat and has high blood lipids. Sitting for a long time leads to venous thrombosis in the lower limbs and enters the pulmonary artery, causing blockage."
Yan Yankui introduced that once pulmonary embolism occurs, it can cause death in a few minutes. In fact, the police officers who questioned her had already called 120 emergency calls, but it was too late when 120 came. It was particularly difficult to rescue this disease, and the survival rate was about 50%.
"Can’t this kind of identification be done by the public security forensic doctor himself?"
"Technically, can do it. But in terms of identity, they can’t. Why? As a party, the public security organ makes its own appraisal. How can ordinary people take it? As a legal supervision department, procuratorial organs are also involved in cases. "
Jin Yankui said that many sudden deaths in supervision places are related to pulmonary artery thrombosis.
A similar case occurred in a prison a few years ago, and Jin Yankui participated in the autopsy. After he and his colleagues dissected the body, they found that all organs of the deceased were not sick, and the conclusion was also pulmonary embolism.
piercing eye
Dig up false medical records
Technical evidence review is the main work of forensic doctors in the procuratorate, which improves the quality of cases again and again in the process of examining and analyzing doubts. Lv Pin, a forensic doctor of Tangshan Procuratorate, Hebei Province, once encountered a medical record fraud case.
Zhang was injured in the head with a beer bottle and bit his left thumb. He went to several hospitals successively, and was mainly diagnosed as an open fracture of the left thumb, a traumatic crown fracture of the second right tooth and a traumatic loss of the third right tooth. The forensic doctor of the local public security organ asked the experts of stomatology and hand surgery for consultation, and issued an appraisal opinion on minor injuries. Ren refused to accept this appraisal, petitioned many times and asked for re-appraisal. An appraisal institute in Beijing issued a minor injury appraisal opinion based on Zhang’s absence of the third right upper tooth, crown fracture of the second right upper tooth and dysfunction of the left thumb. The public security organ accepted this opinion, took compulsory measures of criminal detention against Ren, and requested approval for arrest.
After the procuratorate approved the arrest, Ren’s family refused to accept it and kept petitioning. When the case entered the stage of review and prosecution, the Public Prosecution Division entrusted the Tangshan Procuratorate to review the technical evidence of Zhang’s injury and make a composite appraisal if necessary.
After accepting the case, Lv Pin carefully examined the outpatient and inpatient medical records and criminal investigation files submitted for trial, and asked the case-handling department to retrieve Zhang’s left hand X-ray film, dental film and injury photos the next day after the injury. The results showed that Zhang’s injury photos showed that Zhang’s upper lip was not damaged, and the third tooth in the upper right was missing, but the alveolar fossa was flat, which was inconsistent with the rehabilitation characteristics of "blood clot in alveolar fossa" recorded in outpatient medical records. Moreover, the dental reading film showed that there was no alveolar fossa in the third tooth in the upper right, and the alveolar bone was absorbed. According to the above situation, the third tooth on Zhang’s upper right should fall off before injury.
In order to further find out the truth, Lv Pin, after communicating with the Public Prosecution Section of the local procuratorate, decided to investigate Yang, a stomatologist in a hospital, and recheck the function of Zhang’s left thumb.
In the face of Lv Pin’s professional inquiry and a large amount of evidence, doctor Yang admitted that he had forged the outpatient medical records of stomatology after accepting Zhang’s benefits. This made the investigators of the public security organs particularly surprised, because when Ren petitioned, they also conducted many investigations on Yang, all of which were fruitless.
Later, Lv Pin examined the function of the victim Zhang’s left thumb, and found that the distal segment of his left thumb healed well, and the movement of his left thumb was OK. Finally, according to Zhang’s injury, Lv Pin issued a minor injury appraisal opinion, and the procuratorate made a decision not to prosecute Ren according to law. The doctor Yang and the victim Zhang were sentenced for perjury and false accusation respectively.
medical tangle
Can be "clarified" by identification.
In recent years, medical disputes are increasing day by day, and the relationship between doctors and patients is becoming increasingly tense. In order to deal with patient complaints and medical disputes, health departments, hospitals and related medical staff have spent a lot of time and energy. However, for a long time, due to the limited identification technology, it was difficult to find out the cause of the accident. In order to resolve the contradiction as soon as possible, the mediation result was often compensated by the hospital. Over time, the embarrassing situation of "making a big fuss and making a small loss" was formed. On the one hand, it increases the economic burden of medical units and the psychological pressure of medical staff, and reduces the reputation and image of medical units and medical staff in society. On the other hand, the mutual compromise between doctors and patients sometimes leads to the failure to effectively protect the interests of patients.
How to turn this "confused account" of medical disputes into a clear account? Liu Longqing introduced that the technical center of the Procuratorate of Zhangzhou City, Fujian Province, where he is located, extended its business to the identification of injuries in medical disputes very early.
The cause was an "illegal medical practice case". At that time, a lying-in woman fell down because of breast abscess acupuncture, and was taken to the hospital for emergency treatment. Three days later, the lying-in woman died after being rescued. Acupuncture practitioners are investigated for criminal responsibility for illegal medical practice, but is the hospital responsible? The patient is arguing with the hospital. Liu Longqing’s autopsy found that the whole pericardium of the deceased was full of blood, and the heart had a rupture, which was caused by pericardial tamponade. "From the patient’s physical examination data, the hospital should consider that it is caused by pericardial blockage."
Based on Liu Longqing’s appraisal conclusion, the hospital compensated the maternal family, and the dispute between the two sides subsided.
The handling of the case made Liu Longqing realize that establishing a perfect and smooth medical appraisal system is the key to resolving the contradiction between doctors and patients. The local health bureau decided to invite Liu Longqing to join the medical dispute mediation Committee as an expert. Liu Longqing agreed without hesitation. Of course, he knows that this is a "hot potato". If it is not handled well, he may be involved in contradictions, but he knows better that many people will benefit from rebuilding a harmonious doctor-patient relationship and safeguarding the interests of doctors and patients and the order of medical services.
Use evidence and logic to draw conclusions, avoid being interfered by public opinion, prejudice and power, remove false images from complicated appearances and find the truth. This is the direction and goal that prosecutors and forensic doctors all over the country have been striving for.
"Forensic work is like a one-man show without applause. At the time of judicial reform, we still cling to procuratorial technology." Fourteen years later, when she mentioned the original "career change", Shang Yanjun said that she still had no regrets.