NPC backs effort to reform death penalty
Source: Global Times
[10:24 February 26 2011]
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By Zhao Ran
China's top legislature, the Standing Co mmittee of the National People's Congress (NPC) appro ved a draft amendment of the Criminal Law that cancels the death penalty fo r 13 types of crimes and virtually eliminates the chance that people aged 75 years old or higher could be sentenced to death.
A to tal of 13 types of non-vio lent, eco no mic-related crimes, including the smuggling of cultural relics and precio us metals, teaching criminal skills to others, and excavating ancient cultural sites or to mbs, wo uld no longer be punishable by executio n.
Acco rding to the NPC legal co mmittee, reducing so me no n-violent, eco no mic-related crimes wo uld not have a negative influence o n social security and solidarity.Also, elder suspects of 75 o r older wo uld no longer face the death penalty unless they are found guilty of an extremely cruel murder, the report said.
The draft amendment was submitted last August to the Standing Co mmittee of the NPC for its first reading.
Liu Nanlai, deputy directo r of the Human Rights Research Center at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times that it is reasonable to apply some leniency to the elderly.
In response to some Internet discussio n saying that the amendment wo uld lead to an increase in premeditated crimes co mmitted by elderly people, Liu said that people wo uld not break the law just because they believe they are no t likely to get the death sentence."In general, the advantages of this amendment o utweigh the disadvantages," Liu said.
China News Service also repo rted that 68 catego ries of crimes are subject to the death penalty under the current law. The amendment will reduce that number to 55. It would be the first time the number of crimes subject to the death penalty has been reduced since 1979.
"Acco rding to China's modernization progress, China needs at least 30 years to cancel capital punishment," said Li Buyun, member of the expert consulting co mmittee of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, during a human rights education seminar Thursday.
The NPC also appro v ed the co untry's first law on intangible cultural heritage protection Friday to give the country's historic, literary, artistic and scientific heritages better pro tection.。