Six senior officials jailed for corruption
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-03-11 10:42

Death penalty trials to be reformed

Chinese courts will open court sessions when hearing death sentence trials in second instance, according to Xiao.

This is the latest step the Supreme People's Court took to guard against wrong rulings on death penalty after retrieving the review power of death penalty from provincial-level courts.

"As of July 1, 2006, all the second-instance trials of death sentence cases shall be heard in open court," said Xiao.

"To try second-instance death penalty cases in the open court session is conducive to improving protection of human rights. It serves as a procedural guarantee for preventing misjudge in death sentence cases," said an official of the Supreme People's Court.

He disclosed that in the past, many courts failed to hear death penalty cases in second instance in public as provided for by the law.

From the beginning of 2005, Chinese media exposed several misjudged death sentence cases, criticizing that courts lack a cautious attitude toward the trial of death penalty.

In October 2005, the Supreme People's Court issued its Second Five-Year (2006-2010) Reform Plan, which says that people's courts shall open court session for death sentence cases in second instance.

When trying capital penalty cases in second instance, people's courts should carefully hear the reasons of appeal or protest and review the evidences in dispute, the official said.

If necessary, important witnesses of plaintiff or the accused should be asked to attend the court session, and courts should make all efforts to safeguard the rights of the accused and avoid wrong judgement in death sentence cases, he said.