A CYCLIST has been exempted from criminal liability in a case that involved the death of a driver in Kunshan City, East China’s Jiangsu Province, local police and prosecutors announced Saturday.

The incident happened at around 9:30 p.m. last Monday at a crossing in Kunshan, when Liu Hailong, 36, driving a BMW, almost crashed into Yu Haiming, 41, who was riding a bike in the bike lane. Liu stepped out of the car and attacked Yu’s neck, waist, and leg with a long knife, but Yu grabbed the knife during the fight and stabbed Liu several times.

Liu died after emergency treatment failed.

An investigation showed that Liu was drunk driving that night, according to police.

Based on the investigation and in accordance with relevant provisions of the Criminal Law, police said that Yu’s act was regarded as justifiable defense and Yu should not bear criminal responsibility. Police have withdrawn Yu’s case.

Zhao Lei, a partner lawyer and vice director of the Beijing Zewen Law Firm, said the decision has three advantages.

First, according to the Criminal Law, “If a person acts in defense against an on-going assault, murder, robbery, rape, kidnap or any other crime of violence that seriously endangers his personal safety, thus causing injury or death to the perpetrator of the unlawful act, it is not undue defense, and he shall not bear criminal responsibility.”

However, in judicial practice, that clause has so seldom been applied that some call it a “sleeping” clause. The Kunshan case has actually “woken up” the “sleeping” clause, which will in turn encourage citizens to practice their legal right of self-defense.

Second, there is a “modest constraint” principle for Criminal Law, namely it is a last defense of social order, and the judiciary should not apply it to every case. In the Kunshan case, the police and the procuratorate have followed this principle.

Third, in the whole process, both the police and the procuratorate have kept positive interaction with the public. The law has granted judicial departments the responsibility of spreading the sense of rule of law among the public, and the local police and procuratorate have honored that duty. 

(Xinhua, China Daily)