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China exempts 13 crimes from death penalty
Source: Xinhua |
February 25, 2011, Friday
|
Online Edition
Online Edition
CHINA'S newly revised Criminal Law has reduced the number of crimes punishable by death by 13 to 55.
The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress passed the amendment to the Criminal Law today at its bi-monthly session.
It was the first time the People's Republic of China has reduced the number of crimes subject to the death penalty since the Criminal Law took effect in 1979.
The 13 crimes were economic-related non-violent offences, including smuggling cultural relics, gold, silver, and other precious metals and rare animals and their products out of the country; carrying out fraudulent activities with financial bills; carrying out fraudulent activities with letters of credit; the false issuance of exclusive value-added tax invoices to defraud export tax refunds or to offset taxes; the forging or selling of forged exclusive value-added tax invoices; the teaching of crime-committing methods; and robbing ancient cultural ruins.
The draft amendment was first submitted to the NPC Standing Committee, China's top legislature, last August.
The amendment is considered another move by China to limit the use of death penalty, following a decision in 2007 that all verdicts involving the capital punishment should be reviewed and approved by the Supreme People's Court.
The amendment also stipulates that the death penalty will not be imposed on people aged 75 or older at the time of trial, except if they commit a murder with exceptional cruelty.
Previously, only convicts younger than 18 when the crime was committed, and pregnant women at the time of the trial, were exempted from capital punishment.
The amendment, the eighth to the 1997 version of the Criminal Law, is meant to further implement the principle of tempering justice with mercy.
According to the Supreme People's Court, it has overturned 10 percent of the death sentences nationwide since 2007.
The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress passed the amendment to the Criminal Law today at its bi-monthly session.
It was the first time the People's Republic of China has reduced the number of crimes subject to the death penalty since the Criminal Law took effect in 1979.
The 13 crimes were economic-related non-violent offences, including smuggling cultural relics, gold, silver, and other precious metals and rare animals and their products out of the country; carrying out fraudulent activities with financial bills; carrying out fraudulent activities with letters of credit; the false issuance of exclusive value-added tax invoices to defraud export tax refunds or to offset taxes; the forging or selling of forged exclusive value-added tax invoices; the teaching of crime-committing methods; and robbing ancient cultural ruins.
The draft amendment was first submitted to the NPC Standing Committee, China's top legislature, last August.
The amendment is considered another move by China to limit the use of death penalty, following a decision in 2007 that all verdicts involving the capital punishment should be reviewed and approved by the Supreme People's Court.
The amendment also stipulates that the death penalty will not be imposed on people aged 75 or older at the time of trial, except if they commit a murder with exceptional cruelty.
Previously, only convicts younger than 18 when the crime was committed, and pregnant women at the time of the trial, were exempted from capital punishment.
The amendment, the eighth to the 1997 version of the Criminal Law, is meant to further implement the principle of tempering justice with mercy.
According to the Supreme People's Court, it has overturned 10 percent of the death sentences nationwide since 2007.
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