China's policy is to preserve death penalty (Xinhua) Updated: 2006-03-12 16:33
China's top judge Xiao Yang on Sunday ruled out the possibility of abolishing
death penalty in the country, but stressed the necessity to apply death
sentences in a more prudent and cautious manner.
"China's current policy
regarding death penalty is to preserve it but use it cautiously," said Xiao,
president of the Supreme People's Court, while joining a panel discussion of
lawmakers from North China's Shanxi Province on Sunday.
The lawmakers,
or deputies to the 10th National People's Congress (NPC), the Chinese
legislature in its annual full session here, were discussing a report on the
work of the supreme court over the past year delivered by Xiao on Saturday.
"There is no stipulation on doing away with death penalty in China's
existing laws, and there has been no decision on whether death penalty will no
longer be applicable to certain kinds of crimes," said the chief justice,
obviously in response to earlier media reports of a lawmaker's proposal to amend
the Criminal Law and exempt certain crimes from death penalty application.
Jiang Bixin, an NPC deputy from Central China's Hunan Province and also
president of the Higher People's Court of Hunan Province, reportedly submitted a
motion to the ongoing NPC session, suggesting that death penalty be gradually
phased out in sentences on economic crimes such as embezzlement and accepting
bribes.
"We must continue to follow the policy of being both strict and
lenient according to the actual situation of the cases, and show leniency to the
convicts who only committed minor offenses or merited milder punishment and even
exemption of punishment," Xiao told the deputies.
He added that since
the right to live is the "most important human right," the supreme court will
continue to improve the existing procedures for the second instance trials and
the examination and approval of cases involving death sentences.
The
Chinese supreme court has announced its plan to take back the power to examine
and approve death sentences from the hands of local higher courts, but so far no
timetable has been given.
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