[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Jan. 21



CHINA:

Reformers seek to blunt China's death-penalty reflex


In 10 years on China's highest court, Xuan Dong had a hand in the
executions of 1,000 people -- most carried out by a bullet to the back of
the head, often within weeks of the verdict. On his worst days, he
considered himself a Communist Party hanging judge.

Sitting on the Supreme People's Court, he represented the condemned's last
hope. Secretly, he loathed rubber-stamping party death sentences against
people who he thought rarely deserved such a fate, often accepting
confessions he knew were gotten by torture. He watched silently as lawyers
were beaten and dragged from court if they dared to challenge the party's
will.

In 2000, Xuan walked away from the bench to battle for human rights. Now,
as China re-evaluates its hard-line policies on capital punishment, the
59-year-old defense lawyer has called for public trials, more media
exposure and protections for lawyers and less party interference with the
judiciary.

"The party should not give instructions" to judges, he said. "There have
been changes bit by bit, but they are too slow."

Recently, Chinese rights advocates such as Xuan have seen progress within
a legal system that each year is estimated to execute more people than all
other countries combined. Legislation enacted last year requires the high
court to review all death sentences, a step that had been dropped two
decades ago.

Facing pressure before the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China reportedly has
scaled back the pace of executions. Although the government considers the
number a state secret, China executed 1,051 people in 2006, accounting for
two-thirds of the 1,591 put to death worldwide that year, according to
statistics from Amnesty International, often based on media reports.

That represented a 40 percent drop from China's recorded total of 1,770
the previous year. Yet because of state secrecy, some activists believe
that the number of executions could be as high as 10,000 to 15,000 a year.

The high court reviewed only a small portion of capital cases in recent
years. Lower courts had operated virtually without oversight since Deng
Xiaoping gave them the power to impose capital punishment in the wake of a
corruption and crime wave in the 1980s. Acquittals are rare and appeals
are made in the same court, heard by poorly trained provincial judges
little inclined to contradict themselves, according to studies by criminal
justice experts.

The studies, relying on interviews with defense lawyers and defendants,
paint a bleak picture: China's courts have no juries, police have
unchecked powers and forensics rarely are used in reaching verdicts that
vary wildly depending on region, party influence and a defendant's
connections.

68 offenses -- including nonviolent crimes such as tax evasion, drug
smuggling and pornography distribution -- carry the death penalty.
Although officials are considering reducing the number of crimes
punishable by execution, they say crimes such as corruption, bribery and
national security violations still might lead to death sentences.

The legal reforms, advocated by a growing lobby of Chinese lawyers and
scholars, are part of a policy that officials call "kill fewer, kill
carefully." It calls for improved trial and review processes, and it
requires that all death penalty appeals be heard in open court.

Experts are divided over how much substance the reforms carry.

"For China, it's an exciting breakthrough," said Jerome A. Cohen, a New
York University law professor and adjunct senior fellow for Asia Studies
at the Council on Foreign Relations. "Death penalty reforms will lead the
way for improved procedures for other major criminal cases."

Others say the Chinese legal system still lacks transparency.

"So you have the return of an important piece of review," said Sharon Hom,
director of the New York-based group Human Rights in China. "But you're
reviewing a system that is still politicized, that still does not welcome
independent judges and where lawyers raising questions about abuse or
torture are being harassed and beaten up."

Human Rights in China last year released a report documenting the abuse of
defense lawyers. From 1997 to 2002, more than 500 were jailed.

In 2006, a judge "beat and choked" a lawyer for filing a case. "I am the
court, the court is me, If I say the case will not be filed, the case will
not be filed," the report quoted the judge as saying.

The year before, a lawyer visiting his client was "beaten by five
unidentified men and then taken into police custody," the report said. The
lawyer was released, but not until his client's trial was over.

Li Fangping, 33, a Beijing defense lawyer, got involved in death cases
after seeing a man sentenced to death for stealing a cell phone. The man
was silenced by the judge each time he tried to defend himself.

Li vowed to help change the system.

He has suffered some hearing loss because of beatings by police officers
during subsequent cases. "In a big case, if you try to be aggressive in
defending your client, that can often lead to trouble for you," he said.

Li Heping, 37, a Beijing defense lawyer, said police tortured suspects to
get confessions in several of his death penalty cases. They also denied
him access to his clients.

"I'm seen as an enemy of the police," he said. "When you come to court you
feel surrounded by hunters. And you are their prey."

Xuan, the former judge, said he once saw officials tape a lawyer's mouth
shut. He said police tortured a defendant to make him change his story,
then charged his lawyer with fabricating evidence.

(source: China Post)