China rethinking death penalty appeals

China, believed to execute more people than any other country, will not scrap the death penalty but it is reforming the system to ensure the sentence is applied justly, the country’s premier said on Monday.

“China is reforming its judicial system, including taking the right to review death penalty up to the supreme people’s court. However, given our national conditions, we will not abolish the death penalty,” Wen told a news conference at the close of parliament.

“What we are doing is to institute an effective system in China to ensure prudence and justice in giving death penalties,” he said.

The government keeps secret the exact number of people executed in China each year, but rights groups say it ranges from 5,000 to 12,000 annually -- more than any other country.
The top court, the Supreme People’s Court, relinquished the power of final review in death penalty cases in the early 1980s, but experts say the leadership has been studying how to restore that power to help regulate the use of the death sentence.

Officials say the move would simplify an irregular process and some estimates say it could quickly reduce the number of executions by 30 percent.