All death penalty appeals must be heard in an open court from
the latter half of this year to better protect human rights,
China's chief justice Xiao
Yang announced on Friday.
Xiao made the remarks at a two-day seminar in Zhengzhou in
central China's
Henan Province, sources with the Supreme People's Court (SPC)
revealed.
"The move will ensure justice and caution in death penalty
rulings," he said.
So far, the High People's Courts in Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin,
Hainan and Qinghai have held open sessions on death penalty appeal
cases, according to Xiao, head of SPC.
According to Chinese law, traditionally only intermediate
people's courts at the city level held the power to make the first
verdict on death penalty judgments. Defendants would then appeal
the initial judgment to the high people's court at a provincial
level.
The Criminal Procedural Law requires courts to hear in open
session all cases protested by public prosecutors after reviewing
the details of the first death penalty rulings. However, for
appeals by the defendant, the law says that the court should, "in
principle," hold an open session, but a documentary review would
suffice if the facts in a case are clear.
In reality, documentary reviews have become the preferred option
of most high courts, and open sessions are an exception, sources
said.
The media has exposed several instances of miscarriages of
justice in recent years, which has led to a criticism of the
courts' lack of caution in pronouncing the ultimate punishment.
"Initial open court sessions of death penalty cases during their
second verdict in some provinces and municipalities have proved to
be successful. The Supreme People's Court is confident to spread it
nationwide," Xiao said.
The SPC required all high people's courts to better negotiate
with procuratorates, police and justice administrative departments
to get their support on the issue.
To openly hear death-sentence appeals was only part of the
latest moves by the SPC to ensure caution regarding the death
penalty in order to better protect human rights. The court will
withdraw the death sentence review power this year, Xiao said last
month.
China's 1979 edition of the Criminal Procedural Law specified
that all death sentences with immediate execution must be reviewed
by the Supreme People's Court.
However, in a bid to strike hard at criminals, the People's
Court Organizational Law, promulgated in 1983, gave power to the
provincial high people's court to make the final judgement on
special immediate execution cases.
Since then, it has been found that only reviewing death penalty
cases at the provincial level can result in miscarriages of
justice.
(China Daily February 25, 2006)