Who would study psychology if they didn't have some kind of problem?

Chapter 540 Sharpening the Knife, Getting Ready—(4K Long Chapter)

The one-hour recess extension was quickly over.

Compared to the normal court hearing an hour earlier, the current re-opening of the court has brought about a complete change in everyone's mindset.

The audience members were extremely excited. The end of the "court investigation" phase meant that the "knowledge points" of the debate were no longer needed, the general outline of the trial was determined, and the subsequent debate would simply be a war of words.

The extension of the recess indicates that changes, a turning point, and a new explosive event have occurred in the courtroom.

This also means that during the debate, the lawyers in their smart suits will have more ammunition to use in their arguments, and the debate will be more entertaining!
Some people who had originally planned to visit other courtrooms returned, watching with great interest the plaintiffs and defendants who had returned to the central seats.

Compared to the onlookers who seemed to enjoy the spectacle, the expressions of those in the core seats were much more serious.

The defense attorney's expression was even more tense.

Nan Zhuren compiled a lot of materials—there was a deliberate element to it—so the court recess just now was simply not enough time for the defendant's lawyer to fully understand these supplementary evidences.

Attorney Zhan's attention was not fully focused on the courtroom due to external factors, and the defendant's lawyer seemed to be the same. In addition, the first half of the trial had taken too much of their energy, and even after entering the defendant's seat, the defendant's lawyer was still quietly checking the still-warm printed materials with the ringleader, Wang Zhenhai.

The entrance of the presiding judge and two judges stirred up the stagnant atmosphere in the courtroom.

With a resounding "thud," the judge's gavel shattered the brief respite, like a stone thrown into a stagnant pond, the ripples being the suppressed whispers in the audience and the renewed tension in the defendant's dock.

After looking around, the presiding judge's authoritative voice rang out: "The court is now in session. The prosecution submitted supplementary evidence during the recess, which, after review by the panel of judges, is deemed relevant to ascertaining the facts of this case and is therefore accepted."

The presiding judge looked at the plaintiff's seat: "Prosecutor, please present and explain any supplementary evidence."

……

In fact, not only the defendants, but also the prosecutors sitting in the plaintiff's seat were a little flustered.

Because the supplementary evidence was discussed and agreed upon by Nan Zhuren and Attorney Zhan, the prosecutor had only recently received this evidence.

However, due to his duty, he now had to make an appearance and start the proceedings. This prosecutor's professionalism was indeed quite high; even in this situation, his voice remained calm and powerful: "Your Honor, we are submitting two supplementary pieces of evidence."

The prosecutor looked at the materials in his hand and said, "The first document is the defendant Wang Zhenhai's early business registration information, copies of his technology patent certificates, and related work descriptions."

At this point, the prosecutor glanced in the direction of the defendant's dock: "This evidence was originally collected by the defendant."

The defendant's lawyer kept a straight face. In the first half, he used the chat logs provided by the plaintiff to refute Nan Zhuren, but he didn't expect that in the second half, the other party would use the same tactic against him.

Attorney Zhan also kept a straight face. In just ten minutes, Nan Zhuren had not only used the evidence he had collected, but also the evidence submitted by the defendant?

And surprisingly, Attorney Zhan hadn't noticed this before.

The prosecutor continued, "Evidence one includes proof that the defendant, Wang Zhenhai, studied software engineering at Beidu Engineering University, as well as his degree certificate and graduation certificate. In addition, between 2009 and 2013, the defendant held a 'Senior Software Engineer' professional qualification certificate and worked as a senior engineer at a company called 'Beidu Future Technology'."

"From 2013 to 2015, the defendant Wang Zhenhai founded 'Zhenhai Technology,' whose main business was the research and development and application of image recognition algorithms. He also served as the technical director. In two years, the company made a profit of 232 million yuan."

The prosecutor stated, "This evidence fully proves that the defendant, Wang Zhenhai, possesses a profound background in AI technology, and is far more than just someone who 'only understands management frameworks,' as he claims. Considering his core position in the fraud gang in this case, we have ample reason to believe that he was deeply involved in the core guidance of AI face-swapping technology, model optimization, and the formulation of technical solutions to evade detection, and was the actual controller at the technical level."

This first piece of evidence refutes the previous attempt by the ringleader, Wang Zhenhai, to apportion responsibility.

Attorney Zhan was on tenterhooks; this piece of evidence was the relatively reliable one of the two submitted.

The second piece of evidence, from the perspective of a professional lawyer, is riddled with flaws.

In fact, according to Nan Zhuren, Attorney Zhan had originally prepared a third piece of evidence, but it was even more outrageous, with almost no textual evidence to prove it, so he gave up on it.

If possible, Attorney Zhan hopes to use this evidence to directly defeat the other side.

……

The defense attorney listened attentively to the prosecutor's words, comparing them with the evidence he had gathered.

Then, he took a breath and relaxed.

He glanced at the leader and noticed that the man's expression was somewhat tense, so he whispered reassuringly, "Don't worry, this evidence is easy to refute. You just need to say that technology is updating very quickly now, and what we learned in the past is outdated and has lost its guiding significance for the new AI, so we can only rely on young employees in the company."

"This is a common situation. I've handled similar cases before, believe me..."

However, after listening to the lawyer's words, the gang leader Wang Zhenhai seemed lost in thought, showing no signs of being comforted, and his breathing became even more rapid.

After being repeatedly urged by the defendant's lawyer, he finally nodded as if waking from a dream: "Okay, I know... there won't be any problems, right?"

“Of course,” the defense attorney replied matter-of-factly.

……

While they whispered to each other, the prosecutor continued reading.

"Evidence 2 consists of the defendant Wang Zhenhai's early life experiences, chat logs with his employees, and phone records with the victims, which were reorganized by our expert witnesses. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5K), the defendant Wang Zhenhai partially meets the diagnostic criteria for Narcissistic Personality Disorder, Sadistic Personality Traits, and Paranoid Personality Disorder."

"Their fraudulent behavior against the victims, in addition to seeking money, also involved extremely strong subjective malice and constituted a serious act of revenge against society."

Compared to the first piece of evidence, this one seems less rigorous.

If it weren't in court, Attorney Zhan would probably have just sighed, thinking it was all too frivolous.

Although this evidence is somewhat counterintuitive, it is in accordance with legal procedures.

In the public's perception, mental illness seems to be a reason for exoneration.

However, in certain specific circumstances, the presence of mental illness may actually lead to more severe legal consequences or a heavier actual sentence for the defendant.

For example, in cases where a person has limited criminal responsibility but commits an extremely serious crime and poses a great danger to others, the judge may consider that the defendant has a very high risk of recidivism and poses a continuous and serious threat to society. Therefore, the judge may not "discretionarily consider" mitigating circumstances such as the defendant's remorse or compensation, resulting in a longer actual sentence than that of a similar offender without mental illness.

Alternatively, certain types of personality disorders—such as antisocial personality disorder—may lead judges to consider individuals with extremely malicious intent and a high degree of personal danger due to their lack of empathy, disregard for social norms, and highly deceptive behavior patterns. These behaviors may then be considered as aggravating circumstances for severe punishment.

However, these situations are rare.

What frustrated Attorney Zhan even more was that the evidence submitted by Nan Zhuren lacked any expert opinions or diagnoses; it was almost entirely based on his own "judgments." In this situation, not only was a successful determination unlikely, but it was also possible that the evidence could be used against him.

But Nan Zhuren seemed to value this evidence more, leaving Attorney Zhan at a loss for words.

……

The defense attorney almost burst out laughing.

If he hadn't been worried about violating court rules and being warned by the presiding judge, thus losing the excellent situation he was in, he wouldn't have "almost burst out laughing."

The defendant's lawyer whispered to Wang Zhenhai, the leader beside him, "I understand. They must be desperate and grasping at straws. I previously refuted him by saying he lacked a professional diagnosis, but now he's come up with something even more rudimentary."

"It's impossible for me to get you a mental illness diagnosis in court; even if I did, I'm confident I could get you a reduced sentence... Sigh, why didn't I think of this before..."

The defense attorney became increasingly pleased with himself as he spoke.

Unexpectedly, the leader, Wang Zhenhai, suddenly turned around. "What kind of determination is this? This isn't what we agreed on. Don't do anything unnecessary!"

His breathing became more and more rapid, and finally he even let out a low growl.

Fortunately, the courtroom was large, and the prosecutor's voice was strong enough that it did not attract the judge's attention.

Seeing this, the defendant's lawyer quickly whispered to comfort the leader, Wang Zhenhai, and finally managed to calm him down.

The defense attorney then turned his attention back to the prosecutor. After reading the two pieces of evidence, the prosecutor paused slightly.

According to normal procedure, the next step should be for the expert witnesses to come forward and explain the second piece of evidence.

After calming himself down, the defense attorney had already prepared a rebuttal to Nan Zhuren's hasty "mental assessment," and then focused on the first piece of evidence to complete today's work.

The opposing side submitted two invalid pieces of evidence, both of which were refuted by us. This gives us a greater advantage when we move on to the court debate.

If you calculate it this way, the evidence that the opposing side painstakingly prepared during the recess actually ended up helping their side.

Thinking of this, the defendant's lawyer temporarily forgot about the unusual behavior of the ringleader Wang Zhenhai beside him and couldn't help but hum softly to himself.

Then he heard the presiding judge say, "Next, witness Nan Zhuren will explain the first piece of evidence."

Ok?
The defense attorney was taken aback. Why was he being asked to explain the first piece of evidence?
……

Then Nan Zhuren calmly stood up and returned to the witness stand, meeting the gazes of the presiding judge and the court clerk.

The gazes of the spectators behind him returned to him, and the cameras focused on him again.

The gazes of the plaintiff and defendant were also cast at an angle.

Under the spotlight, Nan Zhuren's first words surprised everyone.

"Your Honor, during the first half of the trial, I observed the defendant's micro-expressions throughout. I noticed that when he mentioned 'technical guidance' and 'team division of labor,' he had many reactions related to lying."

"We discovered that the defendant did not drink water during the trial and used the deliberately created 'nervous' atmosphere to cover up the fluctuations in his voice when he lied."

"At the same time, when the defendant makes statements that are inconsistent with the facts, he will habitually lean forward, nod, and exhibit changes in his breathing rate..."

These words left everyone speechless for a moment.

The same words can elicit different reactions in different situations.

Saying this in a professional lecture will pique the interest of the professors below; saying it in a classroom will leave people feeling impressed but confused.

But when you say that in court, most people only have one thought—what is this thing?
"Objection!" the defense attorney immediately declared. "Your Honor, the witness's description of micro-expressions does not fall under the legally recognized types of evidence stipulated in the Criminal Procedure Law."

Article 50 of my country's Criminal Procedure Law stipulates that the legally recognized types of evidence include: physical evidence; documentary evidence; witness testimony; victim statements; confessions and defenses of criminal suspects and defendants; expert opinions; records of on-site investigations, inspections, identifications, and investigative experiments; audiovisual materials; and electronic data.

Micro-expression analysis results do not fall into any of the above categories, therefore they cannot be used as independent evidence, nor can they be used as a direct basis for determining the defendant's guilt or innocence.

but--

Nan Zhuren's gaze was inexplicable: "Your Honor, I did not submit my micro-expression analysis as evidence, but only as part of my judgment. The images, texts, and other materials submitted by our side meet the requirements of 'statutory evidence'."

This is true.

[Micro-expression analysis] It's outrageous, but for that reason, it's not being submitted as evidence at this moment.

It was merely Nan Zhuren's "professional judgment".

Nan Zhuren continued, "At the same time, as expert witnesses, we have an obligation to provide professional judgment in court."

As he spoke, Nan Zhuren gestured to the side: "Our expert witness, Professor Bai Qinghua, is a professor at the School of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, specializing in the field of micro-expression analysis. Our statement is based on Professor Bai Qinghua's research findings and is an expert opinion."

Beside him, Bai Qinghua nodded to the presiding judge, nonchalantly using his decades of academic experience to vouch for Nan Zhuren at this moment.

The presiding judge nodded. He naturally knew the identities of all the witnesses present, as they had all been registered.

"Objection overruled, witness to proceed."

As he spoke, the presiding judge couldn't help but glance at the leader, Wang Zhenhai, a few more times.

Nan Zhuren smiled slightly to himself.

He certainly knew that in this kind of situation, micro-expression analysis was not something that could be openly discussed and therefore could not be used as evidence.

However, in the trial, besides the most important evidence, there is another important sentencing standard.

That is—the judge's discretionary evaluation of evidence.

(End of this chapter)