Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Death Penalty in China

The BBC reports that the People's Supreme Court of the PRC has taken a further step toward reducing the frequency of the death penalty:
China has introduced a number of measures over recent years to cut down the number of executions.
This latest development appeared in the annual report of the supreme court.
"Suspend the death sentence for two years for all cases that don't require immediate execution," read the report.
The court does not say why some cases might need to be carried out immediately, although in the past the government has instructed judges to be more severe in cases that involved crimes it was targeting.
Those benefiting from the changes will probably never be executed.
Criminals given a suspended death penalty usually have their sentences commuted to life imprisonment.
China does not reveal the number of executions it carries out each year, but it is thought to kill more people than any other country.
Four years ago the Supreme People's Court took back the right to review every death sentence handed out by lower courts.
The result has been fewer executions.
Earlier this year China reduced the number of crimes that carry the death penalty by 13 to 55.


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The dynamic evidence page

It's here: the law of evidence on Spindle Law. See also this post and this post.

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