Balance leniency with justice

Other Views

The abolition of death penalty for nine types of crime will help China more easily convince other countries to extradite corruption suspects that have fled overseas. Despite solid evidence against the suspects, many developed countries have refused to extradite them to China under the excuse that the suspects could face "capital punishment". Such excuses will diminish with similar moves. And corrupt officials will find their living space shrinking further with China's judicial reform.

cqnews.net, Oct 27

It is widely believed that death penalty is an extreme judicial measure, so it should be handed down for the most heinous crimes. To gradually abolish the death penalty, we should start with non-violent crimes, like economic crimes.

Ruan Qilin, a professor of and expert on criminal law at China University of Political Science and Law, guancha.cn, Oct 27

Abolishing the death penalty for certain crimes should be a long, gradual process so that society can accept it without too much opposition and believe that such crimes will not increase. Many countries suspended the death penalty for certain crimes before abolishing it from their criminal codes.

cnr.cn, Oct 27

Critics used to blame China's judicial practice for "favoring officials", saying that only five of the more than 100 officials at and above the ministerial level convicted from 2001 to 2011 received death penalty. That allegation ignores the decreasing number of death penalties as a whole. Actually, China has been cautious with death penalty for long and strictly follows the Criminal Law in cases where death penalty is an option.

Beijing News, Oct 21

Law scholars have long been asking for the abolition of capital punishment for economic crimes, and their efforts are partly responsible for the move.

Xu Xin, lawyer and law scholar, via micro blog