職業法官與國民法官之論罪量刑比較──以2020年至2022年之模擬法庭為例

Decision on the Offence and Sentencing between Professional Judges and Citizen Judges: A Case Study of Mock Trials from 2020 to 2022

司法院自1987年起開始研議人民參審制度，2020年完成「國民法官法」之立法，並於2023年正式開始施行。施行前為提升審、檢、辯3方及社會各界對國民法官新制運作的熟悉度，由法院選取既有之判決事實為案例，讓人民擔任國民法官進行模擬案件之審理並作成模擬判決。本文以2020年至2022年司法院公開之88件模擬判決（92筆資料）與相對應之原刑事判決為樣本，比較兩者罪名及量刑之差異，並進行統計顯著性檢定，藉以研究職業法官與國民法官對罪名認定、量刑結果是否存在差異。
從研究數據可看出，職業法官之原刑事判決與國民法官參與之模擬判決就罪名及量刑均有顯著差異，其中59筆殺人罪名有12筆改判為非殺人罪名；5筆死刑有4筆改判為無期徒刑；12筆無期徒刑有7筆改判為有期徒刑；3筆有罪個案改認定無罪等。
依本文研究結果顯示，職業法官與國民法官在罪名及量刑有顯著差異：國民法官參審會讓重罪（刑）往輕罪（刑）移動、殺人罪名減少、死刑及無期徒刑減少、無罪個案增加，但重刑（指有期徒刑10年以上）之比例並未因國民法官參審而有所改變等。

Since 1987, the Judicial Yuan has been deliberating on the system of citizen participation in trials. In 2020, theʻNational Citizen Judge Act’was enacted, and it officially came into effect in the current year (2023). Prior to implementation, in order to familiarize the judiciary, prosecution, defense, and the general public with the operation of the new Citizen Judges System, the courts selected existing judgment facts as case studies and allowed citizens to serve as citizen judges to conduct mock trials and render mock judgments. This article takes 88 publicly available mock judgments from the Judicial Yuan between 2020 and 2022 (comprising 92 data points) and corresponding original criminal judgments as samples. It compares the differences in charges and sentencing between the two and conducts statistical significance tests to investigate whether there are differences in the offense determination and sentencing outcomes between professional judges and citizen judges.
From the research data, it is evident that there are significant differences in both the charges and sentencing between the original criminal judgments by professional judges and the mock judgments involving citizen judges. Out of 59 murder charges, 12 were revised to non-murder charges; out of 5 death penalties, 4 were revised to life imprisonment; out of 12 life imprisonment sentences, 7 were revised to fixed-term imprisonment; and 3 guilty cases were reclassified as not guilty.
According to the findings of this study, there are significant differences in charges and sentencing between professional judges and citizen judges:Citizen judges tend to shift from severe offenses to less severe ones,there is a reduction in murder charges,a decrease in death penalties and life imprisonment sentences,an increase in not guilty verdicts. However, the proportion of severe sentences (referring to sentences of over 10 years of fixed-term imprisonment) did not change significantly due to the participation of citizen judges.