CHINA: EXECUTIONS DROP 30% IN 2007

March 10, 2008: The Dui Hua Foundation, a San Francisco-based group that advocates for political prisoners and researches Chinese prisons, said about 6,000 people were executed in 2007, a 25 to 30 percent drop from the year before.

Only "extremely vile criminals" were executed in China last year, said Xiao Yang, chief justice of the Supreme People's Court, declaring success in efforts to reform the much criticized legal system.

"It's a step in the right direction, but we still have a long way to go," said John Kamm, Dui Hua's executive director.

Xiao, giving his report to the annual session of the National People's Congress, did not say how many prisoners were executed last year. Death penalty figures are treated as a state secret in China.

Source: Ap, 10/03/2008

CHINESE SUPREME COURT REJECTS 15 PERCENT OF DEATH SENTENCES IN 2007: REPORT

March 8, 2008: China's Supreme Court rejected 15 percent of all death sentences handed down by lower courts in 2007 due to a lack of evidence, injustices and illegal court procedures, state media said. The total number of death sentences handed down by Chinese courts last year was not revealed, but the verdict reversals came after the high court was empowered in January 2007 to review all capital punishment cases, the Beijing Morning Post reported.

Citing senior Supreme Court judge Huang Ermei, the newspaper said the verdicts were overturned "because facts surrounding initial convictions were unclear, evidence insufficient, punishment inappropriate, procedures illegal and other reasons". Huang was quoted as saying China was not prepared to do away with capital punishment despite the problems in its lower courts. "The abolishment of the death penalty is the trend in international criminal justice, but in our nation we do not have ample conditions to abolish capital punishment," said Huang.

Source: Agence France Presse, 08/03/2008