Chinese criminal law is severe, with many crimes punishable by death. The Penal Code of 1979 had 74 offenses punishable by death, and in the Penal Code of 1997, which is still in force today, 68 crimes were punishable by death, including 24 violent crimes and 44 non-violent crimes.
It was revised in 2011, the death penalty was retained, but the number of crimes punishable by death was reduced by 13. When it was revised in 2015, the death penalty was further reduced by 9 offenses, bringing the number of crimes punishable by death to 46 today, including 24 violent crimes and 22 non-violent crimes.
Although the number of crimes punishable by death has been reduced, this has not had a significant impact on the number of death sentences and executions, as the death penalty is rarely carried out for certain crimes in practice, such as the offense of imparting criminal methods, the crime of stealing ancient relics, ancient vertebrate fossils, etc.
China is undoubtedly the country with the most death sentences and executions, but the state media and courts only report or publish a very small number of death penalty cases. They do not officially publish the number of death sentences, of executions, or death sentences by province, crime, age, gender, income, etc.
The real key event for the reduction in the number of death sentences and executions in China occurred in January 2007, when the Supreme People’s Court took over the power to review death sentences it had delegated for 27 years.
Previously, the appeal procedure for the vast majority of death sentences was carried out by the provincial courts, and the second instance and the final appeal were carried out by the same court. There was no procedural justice or substantive safeguards, and a large number of miscarriages of justice occurred as a result.
REVIEW OF DEATH SENTENCES
The Supreme Court won the right to review death sentences and hundreds of judges were selected across the country to form a death penalty review committee to determine the basic principle of “kill less and kill with caution”.
In 2012, the Code of Criminal Procedure was amended accordingly, stipulating that the final appeal of all death penalty cases must be tried by the Supreme People’s Court; judges must question the accused and listen to the opinions of lawyers when reviewing the death sentence; apply higher evidentiary standards in death penalty cases and take the initiative to establish a system of exclusion of unlawful evidence in death penalty cases. These initiatives and the revision of the Code of Criminal Procedure have indeed reduced abuses of the death penalty to some extent.
However, estimates by groups such as Amnesty International of the number of executions in China are far lower than the actual number. Based on our experience as lawyers in China and interviews with lawyers, judges and prosecutors, we roughly estimate that in the more than 20 years up to 2007, at least 12,000 people were executed every year.
At least 8,000 people have been executed every year since 2007. According to the “World Death Penalty Report 2020” published by Amnesty International in 2021, 483 people were executed worldwide in 2020, excluding China, North Korea, Syria and Vietnam, which keep the death penalty classified as a defense secret. Given China’s demographic base, it can be said that the number of executions in China is probably around 90% of the global total.
In recent years, exposure of miscarriages of justice, including the Nie Shubin case, the model Hugjile case, the Zhang Yuhuan case and the Jiangxi Leping case, have attracted much attention. In this regard, we must not only affirm its positive meaning, but also have a clear understanding of it.
These wrongful convictions all took place before the Supreme Court regained the right to review all death sentences. Due to complaints and continuous appeals from lawyers, academics and journalists, they became public, thus favoring new trials and the commutation of the sentence.
In some cases, there was severe torture and insufficient evidence, so the court at the time did not dare to pronounce the death penalty with immediate execution, but rather sentenced the defendants to death with two years reprieve. In cases where a doubt remains, instead of declaring the accused sentenced to death with immediate execution, in accordance with the law, “suspected cases benefit from a two-year reprieve”, which is a judicial practice with Chinese characteristics.
There are many such cases, and the wrongful death sentences that have been corrected are only a very small part of them.
Courtesy: World Coalition Against The Death Penalty News letter
