On The Improvement Of The Death Penalty Review Process

As an especial procedure by which the courts check capital cases, the procedure for checking death penalty in our country is the last col of capital case which detaches from former trial. This procedure is very important to strictly control the number of capital cases, unify the standard of capital cases, carry out the policy to killed cautiously. However, because of the legislative inattentiveness and excessive complexity of judicatory practice, the procedure for checking death penalty in our country has many deficiencies in legislation and judicatory practice. These deficiencies have influenced the impartial judgment of capital cases and the final realization of the justice of procedure and entity to a certain extent. Thus, it is imperative to rebuild a procedure for checking death penalty which adapts to the situation of our country and embodies justice and efficiency.There is a long history in our country to check the capital cases in some certain forms. In the period of Bei Wei, influenced by the idea of "punishing cautiously", the power to execute and check death penalty was controlled by emperor; the "three— time—checking", "five—time—checking" farther developed the procedure for checking death penalty in Sui Dynasty and Tang Dynasty; "trail in autumn" and other systems made strict regulations to the procedure for checking death penalty in Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty; the procedure for checking death penalty made more normative and consummate progress after the New China came into existence. It is obvious that the procedure for checking death penalty has a long tradition and a profound base in the history of China. In addition, USA, Japan and few other developed countries which reserve death penalty have some virtues in the procedure of applying death penalty deserving our studying.With the development of the human culture, the value tropism of death penalty has changed from retribution to humanitarianism; the procedure for checking death also should embody the principles of protecting human rights, procedure publicity, unification of justice and efficiency, according to modern litigation idea, these twomake up of the theoretical bases of rebuilding .the procedure for checking death penalty in our country. The international current of restricting death penalty and the policy to kill cautiously constitute the realistic foundation of rebuilding .the procedure for checking death penalty in our country.Currently, the procedure for checking death penalty in our country has basically established and functioned in practice. But we should profoundly realize that there are many deficiencies in current procedure for checking death penalty which have baffled the realization of justice and efficiency. These problems lies in three aspects: transferring the approval authority of capital penalty, mode of the procedure for checking death penalty and time limit of the procedure for checking death penalty. The reasons are various. Inwardly, the idea of thinking much of entity and thinking little of procedure makes trouble; transferring the approval authority of death penalty and legislative inattentiveness are important reasons, too.Aiming at these problems, we can rebuild the procedure for checking death penalty in our country as following ways. Firstly, the Super People's Court compartmentalizes several large areas in the whole country and sets up branches according to the population and the crime rate, going on this premise, definitudes each branch's function, selects and changes judges, decides the way to vote; secondly, to develop the mode of the procedure for checking death penalty and definitude the time limit of the procedure for checking death penalty in legislation; at the same time, strengthen the supervision role of prosecutorial organs. In a word, only by the remedy of deficiencies in the procedure for checking death penalty and the exertion of its advantages through various methods, can it play an important role in our country's course of nomocracy, restriction of death penalty and the protection of defendant's legal rights.