Fewer executions under death penalty reforms
By Li Xinran |
May 25, 2011, Wednesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
CHINA has decided to cut the number of immediate executions when criminals are sentenced to death, according to the annual work report of the Supreme People's Court.
The court is expected to introduce a unified guideline over the use of the death sentence soon.
At present, the vast majority of immediate executions are imposed for the most serious offences of either aggravated murder or large scale drug trafficking, the report said.
A sentence of death with two years' reprieve is recommended for other cases which courts feel do not merit immediate execution.
Such sentences are generally commuted to life imprisonment after a two-year period if the convicted person is of good behavior and has not committed any other crimes.
The report also vowed the prudent adoption of the death penalty for cases involving serious violence triggered by civil disputes, especially when defendants were forgiven by their victims.
However, it was not clear whether the new interpretation would affect the fate of a peddler in the northeastern city of Shenyang.
Xia Junfeng had his death penalty upheld by an appeal court on May 9 and the sentence is awaiting final approval by the supreme court.
Xia stabbed two urban management officials to death when they attempted to stop him carrying out his business two years ago.
China has been reforming its death penalty system since an amendment to the Criminal Procedure Law in 2007 made the Supreme People's Court the only authority to have final approval of all death sentences.
The supreme court overturned about 15 percent of death sentences handed down in the first half of 2008.
China has also removed 13 offenses from the list of 68 crimes punishable by death earlier this year.
The offenses were all economic crimes. They included tax fraud, the smuggling of cultural relics or precious metals, tomb robbing and stealing fossils.
Revisions of the country's criminal code also ban the use of capital punishment for offenders over the age of 75.
The court is expected to introduce a unified guideline over the use of the death sentence soon.
At present, the vast majority of immediate executions are imposed for the most serious offences of either aggravated murder or large scale drug trafficking, the report said.
A sentence of death with two years' reprieve is recommended for other cases which courts feel do not merit immediate execution.
Such sentences are generally commuted to life imprisonment after a two-year period if the convicted person is of good behavior and has not committed any other crimes.
The report also vowed the prudent adoption of the death penalty for cases involving serious violence triggered by civil disputes, especially when defendants were forgiven by their victims.
However, it was not clear whether the new interpretation would affect the fate of a peddler in the northeastern city of Shenyang.
Xia Junfeng had his death penalty upheld by an appeal court on May 9 and the sentence is awaiting final approval by the supreme court.
Xia stabbed two urban management officials to death when they attempted to stop him carrying out his business two years ago.
China has been reforming its death penalty system since an amendment to the Criminal Procedure Law in 2007 made the Supreme People's Court the only authority to have final approval of all death sentences.
The supreme court overturned about 15 percent of death sentences handed down in the first half of 2008.
China has also removed 13 offenses from the list of 68 crimes punishable by death earlier this year.
The offenses were all economic crimes. They included tax fraud, the smuggling of cultural relics or precious metals, tomb robbing and stealing fossils.
Revisions of the country's criminal code also ban the use of capital punishment for offenders over the age of 75.
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