Death Penalty Reform Brings Fewer Executions in China
In the Winter 2007 issue of Dialogue, Dui Hua predicted that restoring the authority of the Supreme People's Court to review all death sentences in China would result in a drop in the total number of executions in that country.
Speaking to the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong on June 7, Dui Hua Executive Director John Kamm argued that continuing to reduce the high number of executions in China is necessary if Beijing wants to improve its human rights image in advance of the 2008 Olympics. In a subsequent interview with the New York Times (published on June 9), Kamm observed that, with an estimated 7,500 executions in 2006, annual execution totals had dropped by approximately 40 percent in the six years since the Olympics were awarded to Beijing
Reports from China suggest that the death penalty reforms have, so far, resulted in declining executions across the country. For example, Beijing's two intermediate-level courts have issued 10 percent fewer death sentences in the first five months of 2007, compared to the same period in 2006. In part, this is because new regulations, by shifting the burden to retry problematic cases back to provincial courts, have caused lower courts to be more cautious about ordering executions in borderline or questionable cases.
See also:
Speaking to the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong on June 7, Dui Hua Executive Director John Kamm argued that continuing to reduce the high number of executions in China is necessary if Beijing wants to improve its human rights image in advance of the 2008 Olympics. In a subsequent interview with the New York Times (published on June 9), Kamm observed that, with an estimated 7,500 executions in 2006, annual execution totals had dropped by approximately 40 percent in the six years since the Olympics were awarded to Beijing
Reports from China suggest that the death penalty reforms have, so far, resulted in declining executions across the country. For example, Beijing's two intermediate-level courts have issued 10 percent fewer death sentences in the first five months of 2007, compared to the same period in 2006. In part, this is because new regulations, by shifting the burden to retry problematic cases back to provincial courts, have caused lower courts to be more cautious about ordering executions in borderline or questionable cases.
See also:
- China Urged to Cut Back Executions Before Olympics (AFP, June 9, 2007)
- An Olympic Reprieve for China's Convicts (Time, June 11, 2007)
posted by The Dui Hua Foundation at Friday, June 08, 2007
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