[Photo/IC]

In 2020, courts across the country upheld the principle that every judicial miscarriage must be corrected, changing original rulings of 1,818 criminal cases after retrials, according to the annual work report of China's top court.

The report was submitted by the Supreme People's Court to the ongoing fourth session of 13th National People's Congress, the country's top legislature, for deliberation, on Monday.

The report took a high-profile case involving Zhang Yuhuan as an example.

Zhang, a native of Jiangxi province, had his name cleared in August after the Jiangxi High People's Court ruled that there was insufficient evidence for his intentional homicide conviction after a retrial. Before that, he had been detained for about 27 years.

According to the report, a total of 1,040 people were announced not guilty last year as evidence in their cases could not prove their convictions.

To guarantee defendants' legitimate rights in trials, courts nationwide also offered lawyer-related services 122,000 times last year, the report says.

Additionally, 414,000 defendants with minor offenses were given non-custodial punishments, and 12,000 others were exempt from criminal penalties, according to the report.