Analysis And Reflection On Sihuan (Death Sentence With Two Years Of Reprieve And Probation)

The system of Sihuan, originally created and exclusively used by the People's Republic of China, applicable to certain convicts who should be sentenced to death but without the necessity of an immediate execution, is a special penal system by which the court simultaneously declares a two years of reprieve with the death sentence, and if those convicts don't commit new intentional crime during the two years of probation, their death sentence will not be executed for ever.According to China's penal practice, the abolishment of death penalty is not fit with the current situation of our country, and can't be fulfilled in the seen future, therefore our first priority turns to how to effectively limit and cut the applying of death penalty. Sihuan, as the most effective path to change the current penal judicatory situation of over-applying death penalty, should be correctly applied and appropriately extended immediately. However, due to the drastic conflicts in academic theory and the failure to decide which is right in judicatory practice, the good influence of Sihuan system has still not been exerted sufficiently. So it is of great practical significance to research and thereupon perfect the Sihuan system and to dig even deeper for its hidden merits and practical advantages so as to operate its unique function sufficiently.Based on a thorough literature review of researches in Sihuan system, approaching from digging emphatically for the progressive merits and practical values of the system, this article probes into several disputed focal topics as follows: how to comprehend and grasp the conditions of applying Sihuan, the conditions and timing of breaking down Sihuan and executing the death penalty, how to deal with the so called conflict of committing intentional crime and having significant good deeds during the probation of Sihuan, and so on. Following the guidance of the legislatorial tenets, applying nomological analysis and logical inference, this article probes the original legislatorial idea of Sihuan system, comprehends hermeneutically the law articles of Sihuan by switching approach angle, analyses several misunderstandings in judicatory practice in the light of some important cases which were exposed recently, and thereupon brings forward several suggestions on how to improve and perfect the Sihuan system so as to exert the influence of Sihuan system sufficiently in judicatory practice.