China to Hear More Death Penalty Appeals in Open Court

According to a China Daily report, all death-penalty appeals in China will be held publicly as of July 1, 2006. The move, initiated by the Supreme People’s Court, is designed to decrease the number of wrongful convictions by making the appeals process more transparent.

Under Chinese law, city-level intermediate courts initially hear cases that could lead to the death penalty. Provincial-level high courts then hear any appeal that is made, whether by the defense or by the prosecution. The new law affects the high courts, some of which — those in Beijing, Shanghai, and Hainan — are already hearing appeals that involve “major factual or evidential controversies” in open court.

The Supreme People’s Court has also indicated that it intends to take back its traditional power to review all death sentences, which it gave up during a countrywide crime-fighting campaign in the 1980s, in order to ensure consistency in the death penalty’s application and to protect defendants’ rights. It is unclear, though, whether the National People’s Congress will approve the Court’s plan, which the lower courts have resisted.

China executes more people than any country in the world. Although the exact number is a state secret, the best estimate seems to be 8,000 per year. The death penalty is available for 68 crimes, nearly half of which are non-violent offenses like corruption, and is carried out via lethal injection or a bullet to the head.

The Supreme People’s Court’s reform efforts follow in the wake of a string of widely publicized wrongful convictions, including a butcher executed for murdering a waitress who was later found alive and a man who served 11 years in prison for murdering his wife, who later turned up with a new husband.