China’s Supreme People’s Court has rejected 15 percent of death penalties passed down by lower courts in 2007.
On Saturday Chief Judge Huang Ermei told the Chinese media that China plans to keep the death penalty for a considerable time to come. She emphasized it was the first time prisoners received “death penalties with reprieve.”
The decrease in death sentences were primarily due to unclear or inadequate evidence and procedural mistakes, says Huang.
Since a reform entailing the Supreme People’s Court handle all death sentencing came into action in 2007 the number of deaths have fallen considerable. Yet, China is still believed to be a world leader in executions.
Executions in China are carried out by lethal injection or fire arms. The wide ranges of crimes that have been issued death penalties include murder, rape, and embezzlement.
It is unknown exactly how many death penalties China carries out each year, because officials don't release records. Human rights groups have estimated 1,000 to 10,000 deaths a year.
"Abolition of the death penalty is the international trend in criminal punishment, but our country doesn't possess the conditions to abolish it,” said Huang.
Comments
staci martin wolfe commented, on March 15, 2008 at 4:33 a.m.:
My sister is currently living in Nanjing, China. Such an interesting place and an interesting time.
Did you interview Huang yourself or were you at a press conference? If not, please site the source where you got her quotes.
Interesting piece.