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Lawyers get an advocate

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A top judge's call to boost lawyers' role at courts will help reduce wrongful convictions, legal experts said.

Shen Deyong, vice-president of the Supreme People's Court, has called on judges to respect the role of lawyers, especially defense lawyers, who are part of the legal community and can help judges avoid handing down wrongful verdicts.

"We should fully understand that lawyers are an integral part of the legal community, an ally of the courts and an irreplaceable force in preventing wrongful convictions," Shen said in an article published on Monday in People's Court Daily, a newspaper affiliated with the top court.

"It is even preferable to spare guilty people than to hand down wrongful punishment to the innocent," he said.

In the article entitled How to Prevent Wrongful Convictions, Shen said the Criminal Procedure Law, which stipulates lawyers have the right to protect the legal rights of the defendants based on facts and laws, is designed to balance the power between the defendants and the prosecutors, to prevent a presumption of guilt.

"Defense lawyers are the most reliable power in courts for upholding justice," he said.

Experts said the remarks re-assess lawyers and their role in court hearings, and may reverse the current situation under which the role of lawyers is often undermined.

Hou Xinyi, a law professor at Nankai University in Tianjin, said the philosophical change of putting law first and respecting lawyers may compel courts to review controversial cases, which have allegedly imprisoned the innocent and dampened judicial credibility.