Criminal Law to Cut the Number of Crimes Applicable to Death Penalty

Anchor: For the first time since the law was enacted in 1979, China's top legislature is revising the country's Criminal Law to limit the offences that carry the death penalty to further reduce the use of capital punishment.

A draft revision will be submitted to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress,the country's top legislature, for review.

Chen Zhe has more.

The country's lawmakers will review draft amendments to the Criminal Law during a bimonthly session scheduled later this month. This will be the eighth amendment to the Criminal Law since 1997.

Liu Renwen, a researcher at the institute of law under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences tells CRI that an important part of the revision will be cutting the number of crimes applicable to the death sentence.

"Previous amendments focused on strengthening the power of the Criminal Law. But now with the development of the society, the country is promoting justice tempered with mercy. 68 crimes are now listed applicable for the death sentence. That's too many. Cutting its number meets the international trend."

In China, the majority of executions are for murder, robbery, intentional injury, drug trafficking as well as corruption. In line with the Criminal Law, those convicted of taking bribes of 100,000 yuan or around 14,000 US dollars or more can be sentenced to death.

Liu Renwen says some crimes were listed in special times and are now out of date. They should be excluded from those crimes that carry the death penalty.

Lawyer Liu Weidong suggests longer prison terms can be used instead.

"The deterrence power of capital punishment shouldn't be overestimated. In recent years, fewer people were sentenced to death. In practice, the punishment has been used in some crimes applicable to the penalty in law. Though it's impossible for China to abolish the death penalty, some crimes such as economic crimes can be exempted from the punishment."

While cutting the number of crimes applicable for the death sentence, new charges such as illegal traffic practices are suggested to be included in the Criminal Law.

The illegal traffic practices include drunk driving and illegal car racing which are believed to jeopardize road safety.

Researcher Liu Renwen says past tragedies in recent years have placed illegal driving at the center stage.

"More and more people own cars, but driving ethics in China are poor. Illegal driving has caused many tragedies. The government has to issue severe and appropriate laws to regulate the situation."

Today nearly 200 million people hold driver's licenses in China, and the number of privately-owned vehicles soared to 187 million by the end of last year.

From January to August last year, drunk driving caused more than 3,200 traffic accidents, killing more than 1,300 people.

For CRI, I'm Chen Zhe.