An Important Change in China
A woman, convicted of murder, shouts before she is taken to be executed in Ghangzhou, April 11, 2001
© Reuters
The New York Times has some encouraging information about China:
China’s legislature on Tuesday barred all but the nation’s highest court from approving death sentences, a move that state media called the country’s biggest change to capital punishment in more than 20 years.
China is believed to account for most of the world’s court-ordered executions, putting to death hundreds of people a year for crimes ranging from murder to such nonviolent offenses as tax evasion. Human rights groups have been protesting what they call miscarriages of justice and the extensive, arbitrary use of capital punishment.
The change, which will take effect on Jan. 1, 2007, ”is believed to be the most important reform of capital punishment in China in more than two decades,” the official Xinhua News Agency said.
The Supreme People’s Court announced last year it would start reviewing death sentences, ending a 23-year-old practice of allowing provincial courts to have final review. In June, state media said the court had begun hiring dozens of judges for the task.
Of course the Supreme People’s Court is far from perfect:
In December 2003, a purported gang boss who said he was tortured into confessing to corruption charges was executed in the northeastern city of Shenyang in an anti-graft crackdown.
A provincial court had issued a reprieve, citing the possibility that the torture claims might be true, but the Supreme People’s Court overruled that decision and ordered his immediate death.
But this change in China may safe quite some lives. In cases like this we should never forget that one innocent person saved is highly important. “He who saves one, saves the world” is a principle I deeply believe in.
Of course, as I have said before, I oppose the death penalty in just about all cases. The only possible exception might be high treason, but that’s it.
6 Responses to “An Important Change in China”
You live up to your LIBERAL conservative label on this one issue. The US and it’s Rightwing love the death penalty. Statistics put the US, China and Iran as the leading countries as far as executions. Pretty select company wouldn’t you say?
yup.
I wonder how people cannot be embarrassed by that.
How ironic that, a week after China takes a step forward, Wisconsin and I believe a few other states will take a step backward by including a referendum on reinstating the death penalty. In Wisconsin’s case, this would be reinstating a policy that the state has done quite well without for 150 years.
Most people don’t have a problem with the death penelty. Even in the EU polls show at least half are ok with it. What everyone does want is fair trials, open systems, and a belief that the person is guilty. This is a step in that direction for China.
I wonder how people cannot be embarrassed by that.
I’m embarassed by it. I’m also embarassed by the high percentage of the U.S. population that is incarcerated. I’m appalled by the conditions inside prisons. I’m outraged by the way way ex-convicts are ostracized in this society — not just by people’s opinions of them, but, in many cases, by laws designed to…to what? To protect the rest of from contact with people who are unworthy of us? Dunno. (I just love how there is all this talk going around about what a great Christian nation this is, but someone goes to jail, and, when he gets out, it’s still not over because everyone is looking down their noses at him for the rest of his life. It’s as if all these Christian people don’t believe that repentence is possible. Or they don’t believe in forgiveness. That’s either incredible hypocricy or dreadfully bad theology, not sure which.)
As far as the DP in the US is concerned we get cases that really have to be considered for it quite often.
A really good example is a possible case from just across the Tenn. river from where I live.
http://www.whnt.com/Global/story.asp?S=5615905
Another is the arson case in California where 4 firefighters died trying to stop the resulting wildfire. People that wantonly kill don’t deserve the public keeping them alive in prison for who knows how long if they are that rabid.
Infact I have more remorse for a rabid animal, it didn’t do anything wrong other than be unlucky and catch rabies. Humans should know better to begin with.