China considers cash for
clemency By Antoaneta Bezlova
BEIJING - Under pressure to reduce its
huge number of annual executions as it prepares to
host the 2008 Olympic Summer Games, China is
experimenting with commuting death penalties to
life sentences in exchange for compensation. But
the practice is proving contentious.
A
string of cases in the southern province of
Guangdong where convicted murderers were given
amnesty in exchange for cash paid to the victims'
families created a storm of controversy earlier
this
year. Similar practices have also been reported in
the coastal provinces of Shandong and Zhejiang.
The disclosures have sparked an intense
debate about the price of human life in a country
which is routinely criticized for executing more
people annually than the rest of the world
combined.
While impetus for reform of
China's capital punishment system has been growing
in recent years, surveys indicate many Chinese
continue to view the death penalty as an important
crime deterrent.
"The fate of criminals
now seems to be determined by the depth of their
pockets," lamented Le Lan, a teacher at the
Southwest University for Nationalities, one of
those who joined the public debate. "The
seriousness of law has been destroyed, further
undermining the public's understanding of
justice."
Xu Shu, a factory worker from
Shenzhen, agreed: "This is an insult to the law.
Can money now buy a life? What can't it buy?"
But some legal experts have defended the
amnesty cases as a sign of nascent reform. "The
practices conform to the latest call from the
Supreme People's Court to 'hand out fewer death
penalties and do so prudently'," Jiang Qinghan, a
lawyer with the Shanghai Guangmao law firm wrote
recently on the Internet forum of the China Daily
newspaper. "If there is repentance and the
criminal's behavior does not merit execution, why
is it necessary to take a life?"
The
dilemma faced by legal authorities is exemplified
by the case of an elderly woman, Deng Rongfen,
from Dongguan in Guangdong province, reported in
the local newspaper Southern Weekend in March.
Deng's only son and the sole breadwinner
in a family of five was stabbed to death in May
2006. He had surprised three migrant workers
robbing his family house. The perpetrators were
all given death sentences.
But even as
justice was achieved on paper, Deng's family
situation remained insolvent. Deng had no money or
means to send her grandchildren to kindergarten or
help her daughter-in-law raise them. The
desperation of Deng's circumstances eventually led
to court-sanctioned negotiations between her and
the accused and the arrangement of a civil
compensation package in exchange for reduction in
their sentences.
The judicial officials in
Dongguan have defended the cash-for-amnesty move,
saying the commuting of the death penalty is done
only with the consent of the victim's family and
it is not tantamount to "redeeming crime with
money". They argue that with the lack of a unified
compensation system, the recompense received by
the victims' families can help relieve social
strain, prevent numerous appeals and even curtail
unrest.
"Some 90% of our criminal cases
involve migrant workers and both offenders and
victims are quite poor," Wang Chuanghui, a
judicial officer with the Dongguan Intermediate
People's Court told the Southern Weekend.
Ironically, the publicizing of the
practice appears to have achieved an effect
opposite to the one desired. It has ignited
debates about social inequality at a time of deep
divisions in Chinese society caused by mounting
income disparity.
While the country's
headlong economic modernization over the past 30
years has benefited many urbanities, people in the
villages have remained on the fringes of China's
development, earning less than their city
counterparts and lacking adequate education and
health care.
"The poor crime victims have
no option but to accept the money," an online
writer calling himself "Rule of Law" wrote
recently on www.sina.com, one of China's most
popular Internet portals. "They are, to some
extent, 'coerced' into compromise."
And as
the country takes tentative steps towards reducing
the number of executions, legal experts foresee
more conflicts.
"Chinese people are
traditionally used to punitive justice and believe
in the death sentence as due punishment for
serious crimes," Zhou Guangquan, law professor at
Beijing Tsinghua University, said at a round table
on China's compensation system organized by the
Xinjingbao (The Beijing News) daily in Beijing.
"Should the number of death sentences
decline, we need an adequate system of relief for
the victims' families or we risk seeing people
taking justice into their own hands."
China reported fewer executions in the
first five months of 2007 after the country's
Supreme People's Court regained its power to
ratify or rescind death sentences on January 1.
The number of death sentences imposed by Beijing
courts has dropped 10%, which is reflected by a
similar trend across the country, Ni Shouming, the
Court's spokesperson told the English-language
China Daily on June 8.
"The lower courts
have to be more prudent now," he was quoted as
saying. "If a case is sent back for a retrial by
the highest court, it not only means the final
judgment is wrong, but also it is a matter of
shame for the lower court."
Centralizing
the right of final review by the Supreme People's
Court ends a 25-year-long practice of allowing
lower courts to order executions. The practice has
long been denounced by legal-rights advocates for
leading to arbitrary rulings by provincial judges
and an excessively high number of death sentences.
What is more, a string of wrongful
convictions concealed by investigators has come to
light in recent years causing public outcry and
adding pressure to revise the system.
Chinese authorities classify the number of
court-ordered executions as a state secret. But
Chinese legal experts believe the number of
executions could be as high as 10,000 a year. More
than 60 offenses - including non-violent offenses
like corruption and tax evasion - are punishable
by death.
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