On Death Penalty Review System Since 1949

The death penalty is the most severe type of punishment.In traditional societies,the death penalty was favored by rulers because it could provide a deterrent to the public and maintain social stability.Therefore,there are dozens of methods of death penalty in traditional society,which are cruel and bloody.But in modern times,out of respect for human beings,many people have condemned such cruel punishments and even advocated the abolition of such punishments that violate humanitarianism.Since the beginning of the21 st century,the awareness of international human rights protection has been continuously strengthened,so many countries have abolished the death penalty one after another,while countries that have not abolished the death penalty are also making efforts in this direction.Based on the needs of the current development,China did not abolish the death penalty,but the Communist Party of China has been adhere to the death penalty policy "Fewer killings,cautious killings,and prevention of accidental killings" since revolutionary base period,the policy after 1949 was inherited,so although China has kept death penalty,through legislation and judicial control,both the death penalty charges and quantity are dwindling.The death penalty review system includes the death penalty review procedure,whose function is to make the death penalty cases have more remedies than the ordinary criminal cases to increase the correctness and authority of the court judgment.But the current death penalty review system has some shortcomings.Therefore,on the basis of previous studies,this paper sorts out and explores the death penalty review system since 1949,in the hope of making some modest efforts to reform the death penalty review system in the future.The article is divided into four parts altogether: The first part mainly discusses that the death penalty review system was formally established in the law in 1954,but the main body of review and approval appeared confusion in judicial practice because of the lack of classification of death penalty cases at that time.Then the Organic Law of the Court was amended in 1957 and 1958,which not only classified death penalty cases into death penalty cases with immediate execution and death penalty cases with two-year reprieve,but also clearly stipulated the law of the subject of approval for these two types of deathpenalty cases.However,the Cultural Revolution caused the death penalty review system to suffer a devastating blow.The second part mainly discusses that in the early 1980 s,in order to crack down on serious crimes severely and quickly,the Supreme People’s Court(hereinafter referred to as the Supreme Court)delegated the power to approve cases of immediate execution of death penalty to the provincial,autonomous region and municipality directly under the Central Government(hereinafter referred to as the High Court)under the background of severe political situation and frequent vicious criminal crimes.Although this decentralization played a positive role in the special historical period,it also exposed many problems.Decentralization of the right to approve cases of immediate execution of death penalty not only increases the number of death penalty cases,but also leads to a number of unjust and wrong cases.Therefore,there is a growing demand for the Supreme Court to withdraw the right to approve cases of immediate execution of death penalty.In addition,the growing awareness of human rights at home and abroad also requires the Supreme Court to withdraw the right to approve cases of immediate execution of death penalty.The third part mainly deals with the formal withdrawal of the power of approval of death penalty immediate execution cases by the Supreme Court in 2007,some achievements made after the withdrawal of the power of approval and some problems still to be solved in the process of death penalty review at this stage.The fourth part is mainly to summarize the dynamic development characteristics of the death penalty review system since 1949,and then draw on some useful foreign experience to put forward some views on the problems still to be solved in the death penalty review system discussed in the third part,mainly to further strengthen the protection of the rights of defendants in death penalty cases,and to provide a more smooth way for defense lawyers to participate in the review process.In order to relieve the pressure of the Supreme Court to approve death penalty cases and further strengthen the supervisory role of legal supervision organs in the death penalty review process,so further improving China’s death penalty review system on the basis of existing practice and theory is hoped.