China's highest court is expanding its death penalty review team
following a modification of Chinese statutes requiring it to
approve all executions from next year.
The Supreme People's Court (SPC) has added three criminal
tribunals to the previous two and expanded the death penalty review
team from 50 to 100 judges.
Many of the judges were recruited from local courts and have
finished their three-month training at the highest court. They will
be on probation for a year before officially assuming office.
The number of judges exercising death penalty review rights is
expected to rise as the SPC is working on a plan to recruit
experienced lawyers and law school teachers as senior judges.
The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, or top
legislature, adopted an amendment to the organic law on the
people's court, ending the practice of allowing executions on the
order of lower-level courts.
The legal change will come into effect on Jan. 1, 2007.
Until 1983, the SPC was responsible for reviewing all death
penalty cases. Then, as part of a major crackdown on crime,
provincial courts were given authority to issue final verdicts on
death sentences for crimes that seriously endangered public
security and social order, such as homicide, rape, robbery and the
criminal use of explosives.
But the practice of provincial courts handling both death
sentence appeals and conducting final reviews has drawn sharp
criticism in recent years in the wake of some highly-publicized
miscarriages of justice.
Since 2005, China's media have exposed a series of errors in
death sentence cases and criticized courts for their lack of
caution in meting out capital punishment.
To prepare for the changes, the SPC decided to set up three new
criminal tribunals to review death sentences handed out by
provincial courts.
In China, capital punishment falls into two categories -- a
death penalty in which the criminal is executed immediately after
sentencing, and death with a two-year reprieve.
(Xinhua News Agency November 2, 2006)