Different yardsticks for applying the death penalty have led to
"judicial injustice".
Zhang Jun, vice-president of the Supreme People's Court,
acknowledged yesterday that uneven standards applied during
mandatory second-instance trials by provincial high courts in cases
involving the death penalty have led to problems during the review
by the highest court.
"The Supreme People's Court will gradually unify standards for
penalties for similar categories of criminal cases across the
country," Zhang told a Beijing work conference attended by high
court presidents.
Ni Shouming, the apex court's spokesman, told that different
penalty criteria exist because of complex and complicated local
conditions in the huge country, but are mainly for economic and
drug-trafficking crimes.
For instance, a drug trafficker in Yunnan Province can be given
capital punishment if the case involves 300 grams of drugs or more,
while in neighboring Guizhou Province, 150 grams can attract the
death penalty.
Ni said unified guidelines for pronouncing the death penalty in
four categories of crimes - murder, robbery, drugs and intentional
injury, which usually draw the largest number of death sentences -
will be released within the year.
The move will be another major milestone in the reform of the
judicial system after the Supreme People's Court took back the
power to review and ratify all death sentences starting from
January 1 this year.
In the early 1980s, the highest court began to grant provincial
courts the authority to pronounce death sentences amid rising
crime; but the practice has been widely criticized in recent years,
especially after reports of miscarriage of justice.
Zhang said the review has reduced the number of death sentences
in China, and "human rights protection is constantly
improving".
He did not provide the number.
Last month, Beijing No 1 and No 2 intermediate people's courts
said the number of death sentences in first trials resulting in
immediate execution had dropped 10 percent year-on-year in the
first five months of this year.
The Heilongjiang High People's Court is the first in the country
to detail 13 circumstances for reference in dealing with cases of
death penalty with a reprieve, in line with the principle "capital
punishment should be reserved for only an extremely small number of
serious offenders".
A total of 14 people in the province were given death penalty
with a reprieve this year after they had been sentenced to death
resulting in immediate execution in first trials.
Nan Ying, president of the court, said yesterday that no
litigants sought appeals because they were satisfied with
proceedings.
During the first five months of this year, 342,854 people were
convicted by courts at all levels across the country, and 56,056
received sentences longer than five years. The figure includes life
terms and executions.
(China Daily July 5, 2007)