On The Problem Of Restricting The Death Penalty

Facing new problems of the old death penalty, this article starts from the necessity and feasibility of the restriction in the death penalty, follow on making profoundly reflection on the existing state and deficiencies, meanwhile, based upon the analysis of some factors, such as criminal policy, legislation, justice and the construction of culture of criminal law, put forward my superficial views for solving problems of the death penalty properly.This paper is divided into four parts.The first part is the summary about the necessity of limiting death penalty in contemporary China. This section, as the foreshadowing of the full text, briefly analyzes the pressure of the international trend of abolishing death penalty that our country is facing up to and proceeds to discuss the need to limit the death penalty from the development of domestic market economy, human rights in the constitution, the needs of the 'one country, two systems' and the limitation of death penalty itself.The second section discusses the feasibility to limit the application of capital punishment. The main function of the death penalty is reflected in the awe and the prevention of crime. Based on the two parts of the utilitarianism---the purpose of Criminal Law and the penal function, I analyze the limitation of the deterrence of capital punishment and the capability to prevent crime. In this section I put emphasis on public opinion which is always tightly attendant by death sentence, and elaborate the masses' strong reliance on the death penalty out of fear, that is, the need of security, and expound the necessity and feasibility of the guidance of public will, and further point out that the masses' opinions can be guided through government, social group, media, religion and scholar, etc.The third part outlines the present situation and weaknesses of limiting the application of death penalty in China. Firstly, from the beginning of general principle and specifics, this section analyses the clauses in China's existing criminal law system which are suitable to death penalty. Then it reveals the trend that it is still necessary to limit death penalty in China from the orientation of the situation and policy to numerous charges of legislation to the applied scope of the death sentence and the further improvement of approval procedures, from the loosely routine of stay of execution to the deadly lack of criminal culture construction.The last part recapitulates a number of suggestions about the further maturity of limiting the application of death penalty in China from four aspects, to decline the application of criminal policy to death penalty and the construction of legislative culture, judicial culture and penal code.