China: The Death Penalty, A Failure Of Justice
China and the World Day 2006: Innocence
The death penalty is applicable to around 68 offences in the Chinese criminal law, including several violent crimes, such as robbery, rape and murder. It is also applicable to some non-violent crimes such as economic crimes (e.g. tax fraud and embezzlement) and drug offences where the circumstances are ‘serious’. Prisoners are executed by shooting, usually to the back of the head, and increasingly lethal injection.
Amnesty International has long-standing concerns about the secrecy surrounding the application of the death penalty in China. The Chinese government refuses to publish full national statistics on death sentences and executions. Based on public reports available, Amnesty International estimated that at least 1,770 people were executed and 3,900 people were sentenced to death during 2005, although the true figures were believed to be much higher.
No one who is sentenced to death in China receives a fair trial in line with international human rights standards. Failings include: lack of prompt access to lawyers, lack of presumption of innocence, political interference in the judiciary and failure to exclude evidence extracted through torture.
Over recent years, academic conferences in China promoting significant reform or abolition of the death penalty have received some publicity in China. This combined with coverage in newspapers and on the Internet of a series of miscarriages of justice has increased public disquiet over use of the death penalty.
The Supreme People's Court (SPC) has recently stated that it would soon resume its approval role for all death sentences past in China – a role which it had previously delegated to lower courts for most cases. It has reportedly established three branch divisions for this purpose, although these are not yet fully operational. The reform will hopefully result in better quality trials and a significant reduction in the number of those sentenced to death and executed. However, the failure of the authorities to disclose full statistics will continue to make monitoring and analysis problematic.
One leading Chinese abolitionist has cautioned that the Supreme People's Court is too short-staffed to review all death penalty cases and that lower courts appear to be resisting the reform, apparently because local authorities are concerned about losing their power to control crime. In addition, ensuring Supreme People’s Court review of capital trials does not necessarily mean that such trials will meet international human rights standards and it may have the adverse effect of further entrenching the death penalty system in China.
China is party to the UN Convention against Torture and has promised to ratify the ICCPR in the near future. When China was awarded the Olympics in 2001, Chinese officials made several statements indicating that the human rights situation in China would improve as a result. Amnesty International urges the authorities to follow through on this commitment by taking immediate concrete steps towards abolition of the death penalty during the run-up to the Beijing Olympics in August 2008. These should include:
- restoring Supreme People’s Court final review of all death sentences passed in China;
- reducing the number of offences punishable by death, including non violent crimes and drugs offences.
- publishing official national statistics on the total number of prisoners’ sentenced to death and executed in China
Recommended action:
Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible in Chinese, English or your own language:
- expressing deep concern about the miscarriages of justice detailed above and calling on the authorities to take immediate and concrete steps towards abolition of the death penalty;
- welcoming the intention of the Chinese authorities to re-instate Supreme Court review of all death sentences passed in China and calling on the authorities to ensure that the courts are put into full operation without further delay;
- urging the authorities to remove all non-violent crimes, including economic and drugs offences from the scope of the death penalty;
- calling on the authorities to make public full national statistics on death sentences and executions in China;
- reminding the authorities of their commitments to improve human rights in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics in August 2008 and urging that the above reforms are introduced as soon as possible.
Cases
Several miscarriages of justice in death penalty cases published in the Chinese press in 2005 caused considerable public disquiet and increased momentum towards reform, including moves towards re-introduction of Supreme Court review of all death sentences in China.
- Nie Shubin, a young farmer from North China, was executed in 1995 for the rape and murder of a local woman. He had reportedly been tortured in police custody. In early 2005, a suspect detained in connection with another case, reportedly confessed to the same crime, apparently describing the crime scene in detail. Judicial authorities later admitted their mistake prompting Nie Shubin’s family to seek compensation from the authorities.
- She Xianglin and Teng Xingshan were both convicted of the murder of their wives in two separate cases in 1994 and 1987 respectively. Both were sentenced to death despite pleas of innocence and allegations that both had confessed because they had been severely beaten during interrogations. In both cases, the alleged murder victims reappeared several years later - in April and June 2005 respectively. She Xianglin’s sentence was commuted to 15 years imprisonment after a re-trial. He was released after 11 years in prison on 1 April 2005 and officially cleared of all charges later the same month. He and his family were awarded compensation of 450,000 yuan (approx. US$55,500) in October 2005. Teng Xingshan, however, was executed in 1989.
Send appeals to:
Premier Wen Jiabao
The State Council
9 Xihuangcheng Genbeijie
Beijingshi 100032
People's Republic of China
Fax: +86 10 65292345 (c/o Ministry of Communication)
Email: gazette@mail.gov.cn
Telexes: 210070 FMPRC CN or 22478 MFERT CN
Telegram: Premier Wen Jiabao, Beijing, China
Salutation: Your Excellency
People’s Republic of China
President Xiao Yang
Supreme People’s Court
27 Dongjiao Minxiang
Beijingshi 100726, People’s Republic of China
Fax: +86 10 65292345 (c/o Ministry of Communication)
Salutation: Dear President
let us know if you will be taking this action by sending an email to admin-ap@amnesty.org