Chinese courts told to cut death sentences

China's Supreme Court has urged judges to restrict the use of the death penalty to only the gravest crimes and show "justice tempered with mercy."

However, the top court in the country that executes more people each year than the rest of the world combined stressed the need for capital punishment and warned against showing mercy to influential officials.

Shocked by a series of miscarriages of justice involving the death penalty and taken aback by the level of public anger, the Supreme Court has been trying for several years to restrain the use of capital punishment by

local courts.

It has sent guidelines to courts nationwide saying that the death penalty should be handed down resolutely but only when merited. It should apply to only a "tiny minority" of the most serious cases and be backed by ample and valid evidence.

A spokesman for the Supreme Court, Sun Jungong, quoted by the Government's Xinhua news agency, said that the guidelines were a new interpretation of a more merciful policy first approved by the Communist Party in 2006.

Repeat offenders should be punished severely but minors and the elderly should be shown leniency.

The guidelines call for courts to offer reprieves where allowed by law.

But the courts should limit commutations for those convicted of major crimes, such as murder.

Reprieves for former officials who have abused their position must be heard in court, the guidelines say. That indicates that the ruling party may want to enforce harsher punishments for members who abuse their power and position for corrupt purposes a practice that tops the list of public grievances.

China is believed to execute several thousand people a year, but the total is a state secret. Amnesty International said China's courts put to death at least 1,718 people in 2008.

In January 2007, the Supreme People's Court regained the power of final approval of death penalties, devolved to provincial high courts in the 1980s, and it promised to apply the ultimate punishment more carefully. The number of executions fell by 15 % in 2007 and by 10 % in 2008, officials have said.

The guidelines come just ahead of a world congress against the death penalty to be held in Geneva this month. China is certain to be a major focus of discussions.

Source: Times Online, Feb. 11, 2010