Five ministries and judiciary organs jointly released two sets of legal rules Sunday, adjusting the criminal evidence system in a bid to prevent further miscarriages of justice.

The rules are issued following the case of a "killer" wrongfully jailed for a murder that never occurred.

Earlier this month, Zhao Zuohai was acquitted after serving 10 years in prison for murder in Central China's Henan Province as the "victim," Zhao Zhenshang, reappeared alive late April.

Three former police officers were arrested for allegedly torturing Zhao Zuohai into confessing to a crime that never happened.

She Xianglin, a former security guard from Hubei Province, was convicted of killing his wife. He was wrongfully jailed for 11 years until his wife was found alive and well in her hometown in 2005.

She said his confession was forced after being deprived of sleep over 10 days of interrogation.

"Judicial practice in recent years shows that slack and improper methods have been used to gather, examine and exclude evidence in various cases, especially those involving the death penalty," said a statement jointly released Sunday by the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of State Security and the Ministry of Justice.

According to the new rules, the facts and evidence used to convict must be indubitable and sufficient, and evidence in doubt or obtained illegally must be excluded.

Other evidence to be excluded includes material and documents from unnamed sources, testimony made under violence or threat, and evidence certified by unqualified organizations.

The rules also state testimony with unsubstantiated conjecture must also be excluded.

A defendant has the right to request an investigation into whether his or her testimony was obtained properly.

If an investigation is approved, public prosecutors must provide interrogation notes and the original tapes and videos of the interrogation and the testimony of people who were present during the interrogation for the court to consider.

In addition, the regulations also specify that in capital cases, the facts must be determined according to evidence.

"Under the new rules, police will not dare extort confessions through torture; prosecutors will not use evidence acquired through torture; and judges will refuse to consider such evidence. Then it won't be hard to put an end to forced confessions," said Chen Ruihua, a Peking University professor.

But Chen said the new rules do not address the problem of police using improper methods to gather evidence for a higher crime clearance rates.

Xinhua - Global Times