Forecast The Development Trend Of The Death Penalty In Our Country From The "Criminal Law Amendment (Eight)"

On February25,2011, the11th National People’s Congress of thePeople’s Republic of China at the19th session of the standing committeevoted to pass “Criminal Law Amendment (Eight)”, The Amendmentseparately limits the death penalty and abolishes the death penalty charges inthe general provisions of criminal law and in the specific provisions ofcriminal law.In the general provisions of criminal law,the general part ofcriminal law is amended in “Criminal Law Amendment (Eight)”, Asprescribed in paragraph2of article49of criminal law “people who reachthe seventy-five at the time of trial do not apply the death penalty, except tokill extremely cruel means”, further provide explicit provisions for the bodyof the death penalty. In addition to the criminal law article49(1)“peopleunder the age of eighteen who commit a crime” and “pregnant women at the time of trial”,“people who reach the seventy-five at the time of trial” donot apply the death penalty in principle,so compared with before the scopeof the death penalty is narrowed so much.In the specific provisions ofcriminal law,the death penalty charges of13economy-related non-violentoffence are abolished in “Criminal Law Amendment(Eight)”,accounting for19.1%of the total number of capital crimes.The death penalty charges arecut from68articles in《1997Criminal Law》to now55.This amendmentshows that our government and legislator pay a high attention to the deathpenalty problem,conforms to our criminal policy of tempering justice withmercy and wisely and less kill,embodies the values of the protection of lifeand respect for human rights, also highlights the progress of our criminallaw civilization.This paper bases on the《79Criminal Law》，《97criminal law》,"Criminal Law Amendment (Eight)" for the time clue, puts the essence of the content of"Criminal Law Amendment (Eight)" as the main shaft, so as toresearch the development trend of China’s death penalty.This paper consistsof three parts.The first part discusses that the death penalty is amended by“Criminal Law Amendment (Eight)”.The part puts the《79Criminal Law》，《97criminal law》,"Criminal Law Amendment (Eight)" as the timeline,and separately describes the scope of the death penalty is narrowed in thegeneral provisions of criminal law and13the death penalty charges areabolished in the specific provisions of criminal law.The second part mainlyanalyses the debate about death penalty caused by the“Criminal LawAmendment (Eight)”. After“Criminal Law Amendment(Eight)”,somescholars think "Criminal Law Amendment (Eight)" changes to limit andabolish the death penalty has no actual meaning,even have a negativeimpact;some scholars think “Criminal Law Amendment (Eight)”changes tolimit and abolished the death penalty has a positive guiding significance to the contemporary society, is a great progress of criminal legislation in ourcountry. Their ideas make sense,but author is more support for a finalviewpoint.The author holds a positive attitude of thisamendment----according to China’s national conditions,our country shouldstep by step abolish the death penalty.The third part mainly discussedforecast of China’s death penalty development. the first,general provisions ofcriminal law should further reduce the elderly age who don’t apply to thedeath penalty, perfect the criminal law provisions of death penalty, expandthe scope of offenders who do not apply to the death penalty and so on in thelegislation;specific provisions of criminal law should further abolish thedeath penalty of the all embezzlement and bribery crimes and the deathpenalty of other nonviolent crime, merger or abolish the death penaltycharges of the violent crime unnecessary,and slash death penaltyapplication of violent crime by means of development of the technology of legislation.the second, our country may compare, absorb and emulate theadvanced judicial ideas of America, South Korea and Japan in the judicialpractice:1.our country need to further standardize the procedure of deathpenalty application, establish more strict judicial supervision mechanismand more comprehensive relief measures;2. our country should make morepeople to participate in legal change and movement,really make legislationfor people;3.our country should narrow the scope of death penaltyapplication and strictly abide by the procedure of death penalty application.At the same time,we use long-term freedom penalty, limit commutation, etcway to reduce and limit the application of the death penalty,and put judgeunder "sunshine",so as to make people supervise the trial andexecution,protect the victim, the witness especially criminal suspects’legitimate rights and interests,guarantee open,timely,independentjudgment.All in all,through "Criminal Law Amendment (Eight)" content researched by author and different attitude to "Criminal Law Amendment(Eight)" analyzed, I predict the development trend of China’s death penalty.