China's ruling Communist Party wants to abolish goals for arrest, prosecution and conviction. 

State media said, the move aims to lessen the pressure for guilty verdicts.  Arrest and conviction goals for police, prosecutors and courts, have led to a nearly 100% conviction rate in criminal trials.  This has led to miscarriages of justice, including the recent exoneration of a teen, who was wrongly executed 18 years ago for rape and murder. 

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"These cases include some that were shaped by a presumption of guilt.  There has been a stress on confessions, giving less weight to evidence, and even the use of torture to secure confessions." a Xinhua report stated.

The Political and Legal Affairs Committee, a body which oversees the police, prosecutors and judges, want officials to "firmly abolish unreasonable assessment goals for numbers of criminal detentions, arrest rates, indictment rates, and rates of guilty verdicts and case conclusions," Xinhua said.

The committee is also proposing more lenient punishment for defendants who admit guilt.

Data from the Supreme People's Court showed, only 825 defendants out of 1.16 million tried in 2013 were acquitted - putting China's conviction rate at 99.9%. 

Human rights groups claim, that in more sensitive cases, sentencing committees come up with a guilty verdict, even ahead of the trial. 

Chinese officials were known to operate under a system where performance goals determine their chances of promotion or demotion. 

"The very existence of these targets is irrational," criminal lawyer Shang Baojun said.  "If there's a murder, and if you absolutely have to solve the case or the public security bureau chief or detective will lose his post or be demoted, then actually that's the root of many cases of confession under torture that have emerged."

The Chinese government under President Xi Jinping has acknowledged public discontent over reports of torture and abuses by police and other law enforcement agencies.

Xi had repeatedly stressed, the government must maintain its loyalty to the country, people and the law.

Tagsconviction, arrest goals, prosecution, guilty verdict, conviction rate