KEEPING WITH THE WORLDWIDE TREND
Reducing the number of death sentences through legislation is a worldwide judicial trend, said Liu Mingxiang, deputy dean at the Renmin University of China's Law School.
More than 90 countries have abolished the death penalty and eight countries have abolished it for ordinary crimes. More than 40 countries that have the death penalty had not used for more than a decade.
The abolition of the death penalty has not led to a rise in crime in those countries which abolished it, according to Liu.
Officials with the Criminal Law Office of the Commission for Legislative Affairs of the NPC Standing Committee said the 13 crimes that will not be subject to capital punishment if the amendment passes were chosen prudently and are crimes for which the death penalty was seldom, if ever, used in recent years.
Officials pointed to the fact no one had been given the death penalty for teaching methods of how to commit crime since 1997.
The Criminal Law stipulated the death penalty for the crime of forging or selling forged exclusive value-added tax invoices in 1997 to fight a then-rampant economic crime. However, that crime has rarely been committed in recent times amid intensified work by tax authorities.
"Punishing criminals as severely as possible is not the best way to prevent crime," said Liu Mingxiang.
JUSTICE TEMPERED WITH MERCY
The draft amendment shows leniency to the offenders aged below 18 or above 75.
The draft amendment states that the death penalty is not to be applied to people above 75 at the time the crime is committed.
Previously, only those aged under 18 at the time the crime is committed and women pregnant at the time of the hearing were exempt from capital punishment.
According to the draft amendment, a person who has reached the age of 75 and commits a crime could be given a mitigated punishment.
