On Selling the Wei Trial Transcript

Abstract

Mimeographed pamphlets based on the taped record of the proceedings of a case tried in open court did not violate any legal stipulation. I have spoken on this problem a good deal already. I have abundantly negated the interrogators' attempt to present any legal justification, Here, I only need to make one additional point. There are two goals in open trials: First, there are many defects in a system without open court trials; the judicial sector can do what it wants and create darkness; under these circumstances, society is helpless, for it is unable to mobilize social forces to supervise and to criticize, and it can only let it do what it wishes. Whenever the courts are not functioning according to law, nobody can do anything to them, because when you don't know [what is happening, in effect] you don't have the right to speak out. The darkness in the Middle Ages in Europe and the ten years' turmoil in China, during which cases of injustice, falsification, and mistakes involved astronomical numbers of people if family members are included, were inseparable from secret trials. If during the ten years of turmoil there had been open trials, and people had been kept informed, I believe that we could have avoided the cases of injustice, falsification, and mistakes involving so many people. The realization of open trials was a historic step bought at a great price of fresh blood. The aim is to put the court under the supervision of the people, permitting the court to resolve cases only according to law, not according to private wishes.