Research On China's Death Penalty System

Dated from the class society, the death penalty is considered as the most cruel "judicial murder", the oldest punishment method as well as the rulers' "magic weapons to governing the country". Since the Enlightenment Revolution in the 18th century, its legitimacy and rationality becomes controversial. The abolishment of the death penalty, when considered from humanitarian perspective, is absolutely reasonable and moral and will be a common sense in the field of criminal law.However, the death penalty is an important punishment method and cannot be completely abolished when the social reality is taken into consideration. At present, the death penalty system is composed of legislation, execution and death penalty review. Although the law has experienced a long evolution, there are still many problems remain to be solved urgently. Therefore, the further improvement of death penalty system has become a hot topic in the theoretical and practical field which will be theoretically meaningful.To begin with, the author, starting from the origination and the discrepancy of its abolishment and existence, analyses the development trend of the death penalty. By taking American legislation as an example, this paper analyzes the construction of the death penalty system abroad, and then elaborates the development situation of death penalty legislation in our country. Then, by employing theoretical and practical methods, the author makes a further study on the reason that why our goverment limits the death penalty and its necesity as well. Through the judicial government on the dead penalty, the author demonstrarhtes to the readers the fact that death penalty,at present stage, can only be improved rather than totally abolished, that it is necessary to reduce its applied situations and cases.Third, the paper attaches great importance to the legislation and application of the dead penalty. The author, on the one hand, by analyzing the strict limitation on the dead penalty, informs the readers of the applied standards of reprieve; and on the other hand, by illustrating the functions that the capital cases of the second instance should be put on trial, shows us the specific application of reprieve in China, hence further points out the severe control and limitation on the dead penalty.What's more, by explaining the judicial control during the trial and implementing period, the author points out the controlling methods of the general crime, the judicial supervision on special crime and the ways of how to limit the application of the dead penalty from lawful perspective.Finally, the author, on the one hand, by taking the legislative trend and the review procedures of the dead penalty, and by referring to the Amendment of Criminal Law (the 8th edition) and judicial explanation of the death penalty review, the death penalty evidence and the relevant judicial practice abroad and on the other hand, takes the particular judicial practice in China into consideration, points out several suggestions on the procedure of the dead penalty review system.