Recently, Liu Qiang and Gongfu, partners of ZhongYin Law Firm, have successfully defended the suspect Li (pseudonym) from criminal penalties in a criminal case involving guns.

Due to the great harm of crimes involving guns to the society, relevant judicial interpretations set a low threshold for conviction of and impose severe penalties on such crimes. In addition, in recent years, cases involving guns have shown the characters like diversity and complexity, and the Supreme People’s Court has made a Reply on the Conviction and Sentencing in Criminal Cases Involving Guns Powered by Compressed Gas and Air Guns with Lead Bullets, whereby it has established several basic principles. Liu Qiang and Gong Fu seized the opportunity and put forward relevant defending opinions to the public prosecution organ, which somewhat accepted the opinions. Since the reply is programmatic and general, there are still no specific standards for the practice. It requires the public security organs, prosecution organs and people's courts to drop their old habits, putting some pressure on them. The public prosecution organ prosecuted Li for the crime of illegally manufacturing guns and proposed a sentence from three years to three years and three months. Liu Qiang and Gong Fu worked together to develop a strategy of combining defense for innocence and defense for minor crime. Finally, in spite of the statutory penalty of imprisonment for more than three years and less than ten years, they successfully defended the suspect Li (pseudonym) from criminal penalties in the first instance. The first-instance public prosecution organ filed a counterappeal. After review, the first division of the Beijing Municipal People's Procuratorate held that the counterappeal was inappropriate and petitioned to the court of second instance for withdrawal of the counterappeal. Recently, the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court has ruled that a leave is granted to the withdrawal of the counterappeal. Since then, the criminal judgment of the first instance has come into effect. ZhongYin believe that the results of this case not only honor the principle of suiting punishment to crime but also meet the basic requirements of the criminal policy of temper justice with mercy, producing positive social effects.

In order to protect the legal rights of the client, Liu Qiang and Gong Fu went all out to defend without considering the time cost. During his custody, they met the suspect nearly 20 times, learned the evidence favorable to the suspect, and immediately provided the same to the investigative organ and the public prosecution organ, providing favorable clues for the investigation organ to find out the facts. Moreover, they successively prepared a Petition for Bail, a Petition for Custody Necessity Review, Defending Opinions and Suggestions on No Criminal Offence by Suspect, Statements of Defense based on different strategies, and other pleadings, to persuade the investigation organ, public prosecution organ, and court. Finally, they successfully convinced the relevant organs and defended the suspect Li (pseudonym) from criminal penalties.