Rational Thinking About The Death Penalty

As the punishment of depriving a person of life, the death penalty, which is also named capital punishment, is the most severe one in the punishment system. The present Chinese death punishment policy'to kill less and cautiously."The Criminal Law in 1979 was discreet in the provision of death penalty. The crimes punishable by death in specific provisions were strictly limited and strict restrictions of the application of death penalty were made in general provisions. The general provisions of Criminal Code in 1997 stipulated the criminals to whom death penalty can be applied to more exactly and further perfected the system of death sentence with a reprieve.The number of crimes punishable by death decreases. The scope of application death penalty in China is wide, which is particularly obvious at present. International conventions promote some countries to contemplate death penalty on its own criminal law to a certain extent; and a series of countries have abolished death penalty one after the other. And in turn, the active attitudes of those countries that have abolished death penalty also promote the tide of abolishing death penalty in international community. Japan reserve the death penalty, but the reserving or abolishing of death penalty has been the focus of the heated debate . The 8th Amendment of American Constitution has restricted the death penalty. Since Italian criminal jurist Beccaria firstly proposed to abolish death penalty in his book on Crime and Punishment in 1764, the stable status of death penalty has been shaken. Through 200 years systemic research and rational thinking both at criminal jurisprudence circles and criminal judicial practices, the existence of death penalty is facing new challenge. Once condition accomplished, China must abolish the death penalty thoroughly. At present, China have to restrict application of the death penalty strictly by the criminal law legislation and judicature.