CHINA. CHIEF JUSTICE PLEDGES TO IMPROVE DEATH PENALTY REVIEW PROCESS

China will further refine the death penalty review process this year, Chief Justice Xiao Yang told the on-going annual session of the National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature.
Xiao Yang, president of the Supreme People's Court, said in his annual work report that his court would promote reform in the justice system to safeguard justice in jurisdiction. The president did not elaborate on the details of reforms, but said earlier when answering questions of the Human Rights magazine in February that China strictly controls the application for death sentence and strictly follows the procedures of passing death sentence.
China has implemented the policy of "combining punishment with leniency" and opposes advocacy of "heavy penalty" and "severe punishments", he told the magazine.
"To those convicted guilty of serious crimes, we approved the capital punishment according to law," he told the parliament in his report. "To those convicted of felony crimes but with circumstances for leniency, we would change the capital punishment to death penalty on probation or life imprisonment according to law."
According to Xiao, China's courts at all levels sentenced a total of 767,951 convicted criminals in 2004, up 2.8 percent from 2003. Among the convicted criminals, 19.04 percent were sentenced to more than five years imprisonment, to life imprisonment and to death.