Provincial High Courts Implement SPC Circular on Death Penalty Hearings

March 1, 2006

The high people's courts (HPCs) of Beijing, Shanghai, and Tianjin municipalities, Hainan and Qinghai provinces, and the Tibet Autonomous Region all have reported that they currently handle death penalty appeals in court, according to a January 17 China Youth Daily article. These reports come several weeks after a Supreme People's Court (SPC) circular went into effect on January 1, requiring court hearings in all death penalty appeals beginning in the second half of 2006. The China Youth Daily article implies that other provincial-level HPCs do not currently conduct court hearings to resolve death penalty appeals, but are preparing to institute new procedures that will bring them into compliance with the SPC requirement.

The high people's courts (HPCs) of Beijing, Shanghai, and Tianjin municipalities, Hainan and Qinghai provinces, and the Tibet Autonomous Region all have reported that they currently handle death penalty appeals in court, according to a January 17 China Youth Daily article. These reports come several weeks after a Supreme People's Court (SPC) circular went into effect on January 1, requiring court hearings in all death penalty appeals beginning in the second half of 2006. The China Youth Daily article implies that other provincial-level HPCs do not currently conduct court hearings to resolve death penalty appeals, but are preparing to institute new procedures that will bring them into compliance with the SPC requirement.

The SPC has focused on reforms to the death penalty review process to minimize the risk of wrongful executions and provide greater rights protection to criminal defendants. These concerns came to the forefront of a national debate on the criminal process after domestic media exposed the wrongful conviction cases of Nie Shubin and She Xianglin, each identified in a January 5 China Youth Daily article as 1 of China's 10 most influential legal cases in 2005. The controversy over these cases helped push the SPC to take concrete steps toward reclaiming the death penalty review power and incorporate death penalty reform into the Second Five-Year Reform Program for the people’s courts. Echoing SPC language, HPCs in Hainan and Beijing have emphasized how court hearings enable them to fulfill the goals of minimizing wrongful executions and providing greater protection to criminal defendants, according to January 26 and 20 articles posted on the China Court Web site. However, courts have varied both in interpreting which cases require court hearings under the law and in the specific procedures that they use for court hearings. The Beijing HPC reports that it conducts hearings for all death penalty appeals. It also allows the procuratorate and criminal defense lawyers to participate in the hearings and opens at least some hearings to the public. In addition, the Beijing HPC applies sentencing guidelines that limit the use of the death penalty only to crimes that are particularly heinous and create serious harm. Reports by HPCs in Hainan, Tianjin (via the China Court Web site), and Shanghai (via Legal Daily) do not mention these procedural safeguards as part of their current appeals procedures.

The circular that went into effect on January 1 focuses only on procedures for provincial-level high courts, and does not clarify how the SPC itself will conduct death penalty review. At the same time that provincial-level HPCs are reforming their procedures to bring them into compliance with SPC demands, the SPC continues to expand its own personnel to cope with the additional work from taking back the death penalty review power. According to a January 25 article in the 21st Century Business Herald, the SPC currently is establishing three new criminal tribunals that will focus primarily on death penalty review. The SPC already operates two criminal tribunals. A January 16 People's Daily report notes that the SPC is likely to draw from several candidate pools to staff the three new tribunals, including: (1) outstanding criminal judges from the various HPCs and intermediate people's courts; (2) Ph.D. and Masters students who will initially serve as judicial clerks and receive preparatory training for eventual promotion to judge; (3) top scorers on the national judicial exam; and (4) candidates for positions as judicial secretaries. According to a November 3, 2005, report in the Beijing News, the SPC is expected to issue a judicial interpretation that will help settle open issues in the death penalty review process and further clarify its own procedures.

For additional information on capital punishment in China, see Section III(b), on the Rights of Criminal Suspects and Defendants, in the CECC's 2005 Annual Report.