Capital punishment in China

The capital punishment as a Popular republic of China is largely practiced, making of this country the first in the world of number of condemned to dead (3 400 in 2004 according to Amnesty International).

Course of the executions

In China, Wang Zhenchuan admits publicly that “the majority of the miscarriage of justices in China are the consequence of consents extorted under torture”.

Condemned to death are frequently exhibés during hours, before being walked in the streets on platforms of trucks discovered, preceded by the sirens and the gyrophares by the police cars. The executions always public, are generally organized in stages, as with Beijing, with a grandstand reserved for the official ones.

The legal ritual is regulated in a theatrical way: condemned are presented to crowd between two police officers, low head, each one of them carries a sign to the neck, on which them name was barred of a cross to mean that they do not belong any more to the world of the alive ones. The nature and the number of crimes committed there are also registered (and in addition, enumerated by loudspeakers).

The torture victims put at knees are shot of a ball of rifle or drawn Revolver to bearing end in the nape of the neck. Only exception to the rule: some risen of the Place Tiananmen (in 1989), which was condemned to death, was carried out of a gust of Mitraillette in the back, with height of the heart.

After the setting with death, the name of condemned and the reasons for its judgments are posted on the walls, with a red famous brand indicating that justice is made.

Its family learns the news from dead by receiving an envelope containing the casing S which were used for the execution, as well as the cord which bound the hands of condemned. It is joined to this envelope an invoice of 80 Yuan S (approximately 8 euros) for " expenses of exécution" had in the State.

Reforms

Conscious of the problems raised by its massive application of the capital punishment with respect to the international community, the Chinese government declared its will to reform certain aspects of the application of the capital punishment. However, these reforms do not call into question the capital punishment in China. They aim only to doing best to accept with the eyes of the international community.

But these reforms should be applied only in a few years.

October 31st, 2006, it was adopted a law laying out that all the death sentences pronounced by justice must be approved by the Supreme court of the people. This amendment came into effect on January 1st, 2007.

Centralization

One of the reforms is to centralize the judgments in call of death sentence. Currently (December 2005), are the provincial Supreme courts which judge in last authority the judgments with the capital punishment. These jurisdictions precisely are very influenced by the local policy and the given judgments are thus regarded as less objective and the more inclined judges to pronounce severe sorrows.

By centralizing the judgments in call to the national Supreme court, the Chinese government considers that the examinations of the businesses will be more objective, because disconnected from the local context. But for the businesses of national ranges, the problem remains the same one…

Taking away of bodies

Whereas for several years of the Chinese dissidents had denounced the taking away of Organe S on condemned to deaths carried out, in 2005, the government Chinese confirmed this practice officially, in the person of the vice-minister of health, Huang Jiufe, at the time of an International Conference with Manila. These taking away account for 95% of the grafted bodies , therefore only 5% of the bodies come from free gifts.

A long time taboo, this subject is currently being studied and a reform is announced aiming at controlling this market. The bodies were sold by the courts at the hospitals. Certain legal persons in charge had thus a pecuniary advantage (about a few thousands of euros to several tens of thousands of euros for a Rein or a Foie) to pronounce sentences with the capital punishment.

Reference

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