The Supreme People's Court issued a notice on Wednesday requiring local courts to open court sessions next year for second hearings of cases where death sentences have been passed, in a bid to ensure justice and transparency.

The notice said that controversial capital cases should be heard in public from January 1, and all capital cases from July 1.

According to Criminal Procedural Law, people's courts should already hold open court sessions for second instance trials where the facts are not clear, but in reality many fail to do so.

Xinhua News Agency reported that it was another important step to reform the supreme court's treatment of death penalty cases since it retrieved the power to approve such sentences from provincial higher people's courts in October.

A Supreme People's Court senior official said yesterday that the measure was "conducive to improving the protection of human rights. It serves as a procedural guarantee for preventing misjudgments in death sentence cases."

The official added that:

- During second hearings, people's courts should carefully listen to reasons for appeal or contest and review any evidence in dispute;

- If necessary, important witnesses for both the prosecution and defense should be asked to attend the session; and

- Courts should make all out efforts to safeguard the rights of the accused and avoid wrong judgments in death sentence cases.

Since the beginning of this year, several misjudged death sentence cases have been exposed, resulting in criticism of courts' lack of caution in applying the death penalty.

(Xinhua News Agency December 8, 2005)