China's deadly secret: More executions than all other countries put together

Hong Kong (CNN) -- Every year, the Chinese state carries out several thousand judicial executions -- more than the rest of the world combined. For the most part, the names of those executed remain secret, known only to their families.

All figures about the death penalty, as well as most details about executions, remain classified as "state secrets," part of a deliberate effort by China's rulers to hide from public view the horrifying scale of the country's capital punishment system.

Secret killings

While China is by far the most secretive country in the world over the scale of its executions, it is not alone. Secrecy is often a telltale sign of countries determined to continue with capital punishment.

In Vietnam, shocking information disclosed earlier this year revealed that the authorities had executed 429 people between mid-2013 to mid-2016, propelling it into third place in the world's league table of executioners for that period.

In Malaysia, parliamentary pressure finally led to revelations last year that nine people were executed in the first nine months of the year, more than had previously been known.

These alarming revelations go against the worldwide trend of abandoning this cruel and ineffective punishment: excluding China, the number of executions worldwide in 2016 was down 37% from the previous year with 1,032 executions, according to Amnesty International's latest annual report on the death penalty worldwide.

Miscarriages of justice

China's criminal justice system is also plagued by insurmountable defects. With a conviction rate standing above 99% and a majority of criminal cases tried without a lawyer in the courtroom, the odds of defendants receiving a fair trial are abysmally low.

The risks of miscarriage of justice and wrongful executions are exacerbated by a judicial system that is not independent and continues to convict on evidence based on "confessions" -- often coerced or extracted through torture.

Take the case of Nie Shubin, a 20-year-old executed by firing squad in 1995. Last December a court overturned his conviction, but that verdict came 21 years too late for him. If justice delayed is justice denied, then Nie Shubin's is a case of a justice system disgraced.

Nie Shubin's tragically-belated exoneration was lauded by state media as evidence recent legal reforms are working, so why do the authorities remain so intent on concealing details of executions today?

What happened to Nie could still happen today. The government knows it and that could be one of the reasons why they continue to cultivate secrecy. Until they open up, we will have no idea how often such travesties of justice occur.

Reform?

Over the past decade, spurred on by domestic outrage over wrongful executions and embarrassed by international condemnation, the Chinese government embarked on a course of reforms of the death penalty system, under the less than reassuring banner of "killing fewer, killing cautiously."

The most emblematic reform under this policy was to mandate from 2007 onward that all death sentences handed out by lower courts be reviewed and approved by the Supreme People's Court in Beijing. Chinese legal experts have argued that the number of death sentences have been reduced simply because lower court officials are instinctively keen to avoid having their verdicts scrutinized by their superiors.

The government also adopted legal provisions with a view to limiting the risk of wrongful convictions, such as allowing the courts to exclude illegally obtained evidence and increasing the use of "suspended" death sentences, that are usually commuted to a term of imprisonment after two years have been served.

On the public front, the Chinese government engaged in a smoke and mirrors strategy, alluding to a substantial decrease in death sentences and executions in recent years but never disclosing any numbers. Last month, China's top legal official, Supreme People's Court President Zhou Qiang, claimed that executions in the country were now carried out in an "extremely small number of cases" and only for the "most severe offenses."

This seems to be a colossal understatement. China Judgements Online, the official database established in 2013 that purports to compile court verdicts from the entire country, shows that no less than 701 individuals received death sentences between 2011 and 2016.

But even this belies the truth. An investigation by Amnesty International has revealed that hundreds of cases that had been publicly reported in the media have been omitted from the database, including all cases involving foreigners executed for drug-related offenses.

Based on its own analysis, Amnesty International estimates that the number of people sentenced to death or executed still runs in the thousands each year -- hardly an "extremely small number."

Yet, many in the international community seem to be willing to accept claims of sustained reductions and greater openness in China at face value. This is mistaken. Without transparency, China's reform of the death penalty system will fall short, or even slide back.

The amount of progress that these limited legal reforms and piecemeal disclosures so far can achieve have run their course: now only political action can make a difference.

President Xi Jinping, who has proclaimed his ambition to reform China's judicial system by making it fairer and more transparent, should turn his words into action and lift the cloak of secrecy that surrounds judicial executions.

Transparency may initially cause China some embarrassment. But this is a small price to pay to ensure the rights of those facing the death penalty are fully protected and China stops being a secretive outlier in the international community.

Source: CNN, Nicholas Bequelin, October 30, 2018. Nicholas Bequelin is East Asia Regional Director at Amnesty International. The views expressed above are his own.

⚑ | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com.

Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! DONATE!

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde

Florida executes Michael Tanzi

Florida on Tuesday executed a death row inmate described by one local detective as a "fledgling serial killer" for the murder of a beloved Miami Herald employee. Florida executed Michael Tanzi on Tuesday, 25 years after the murder of beloved Miami Herald employee Janet Acosta, who was attacked in broad daylight on her lunch break in 2000. Michael Tanzi, 48, was executed by lethal injection at the Florida State Prison in Raiford and pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. ET.

South Carolina | Man who ambushed off-duty cop to face firing squad in second execution of its kind

Mikal Mahdi, 48, who was found guilty of killing an off-duty police officer and a convenience store worker, is the second inmate scheduled to executed by South Carolina's new firing squad A murderer who ambushed and shot an off duty police officer eight times before burning his body in a killing spree is set to become the second person to die by firing squad. South Carolina's highest court has rejected the last major appeal from Mikal Mahdi, 41, who is to be put to death with three bullets to the heart at 6pm on April 11 at the Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia. Mahdi's lawyers said his original lawyers put on a shallow case trying to spare his life that didn't call on relatives, teachers or people who knew him and ignored the impact of weeks spent in solitary confinement in prison as a teen.

Afghanistan | Four men publicly executed by Taliban with relatives of victims shooting them 'six or seven times' at sport stadium

Four men have been publicly executed by the Taliban, with relatives of their victims shooting them several times in front of spectators at a sport stadium. Two men were shot around six to seven times by a male relative of the victims in front of spectators in Qala-i-Naw, the centre of Afghanistan's Badghis province, witnesses told an AFP journalist in the city. The men had been 'sentenced to retaliatory punishment' for shooting other men, after their cases were 'examined very precisely and repeatedly', the statement said. 'The families of the victims were offered amnesty and peace but they refused.'

South Carolina executes Mikal Mahdi

Mikal Mahdi, 42, was executed for the 2004 murder of 56-year-old James Myers A man facing the death penalty for committing two murders was executed by firing squad on Friday, the second such execution in the US state of South Carolina this year. Mikal Mahdi, 42, was executed for the 2004 murder of 56-year-old James Myers, an off-duty police officer, and the murder of a convenience store employee three days earlier. According to a statement from the prison, "the execution was performed by a three-person firing squad at 6:01 pm (2201 GMT)," with Mahdi pronounced dead four minutes later.

USA | Why the firing squad may be making a comeback

South Carolina plans to execute Mikal Mahdi on Friday for the murder of a police officer, draping a hood over his head and firing three bullets into his heart. The choice to die by firing squad – rather than lethal injection or the electric chair – was Mahdi’s own, his attorney said last month: “Faced with barbaric and inhumane choices, Mikal Mahdi has chosen the lesser of three evils.” If it proceeds, Mahdi’s execution would be the latest in a recent string of events that have put the spotlight on the firing squad as a handful of US death penalty states explore alternatives to lethal injection, by far the nation’s dominant execution method.

Louisiana | Lawyers of Jessie Hoffman speak about their final moments before execution

As Louisiana prepared its first execution in 15 years, a team of lawyers from Loyola Law were working to save Jessie Hoffman’s life. “I was a young lawyer three years out of law school, and Jessie was almost finished with his appeals at that time, and my boss told me we needed to file something for Jessie because he’s in danger of being executed,” Kappel said. Kappel and her boss came up with a civil lawsuit to file that said since they wouldn’t give him a protocol for his execution, he was being deprived of due process, and the lawsuit was in the legal process for the next 10 years.

Lethal Injection, Electric Chair, or Firing Squad? An Inhumane Decision for Death Row Prisoners

South Carolina resumed executions with the firing squad killing of Brad Sigmon last month. Mikal Madhi’s execution date is days away. The curtain shrieked as it was yanked open to reveal a 67-year-old man tied to a chair. His arms were pulled uncomfortably behind his back. The red bull’s-eye target on his chest rose and fell as he desperately attempted to still his breathing. The man, Brad Sigmon, smiled at his attorney, Bo King, seated in the front row before guards placed a black bag over his head. King said Sigmon appeared to be trying his best to put on a brave face for those who had come to bear witness.

I spent 16 years in solitary in South Carolina. This is what it did to me. | Opinion

South Carolinian Randy Poindexter writes about the effects 16 years of solitary confinement had on him ahead of South Carolina’s planned execution of Mikal Mahdi , who spent months in solitary as a young man. For 16 years, I lived in a concrete cell. Twenty-three hours a day, every day, for more than 3,000 days, South Carolina kept me in solitary confinement. I was a young man before I was sent to solitary — angry, untreated and unwell. I made mistakes. But I wasn’t sentenced to madness. That’s what solitary did to me. My mental health worsened with each passing day. At first, paranoia and depression set in. Then, hallucinations and self-mutilation. I talked to people who weren’t there. I cut myself to feel something besides despair. I could do nothing as four of my friends and fellow prisoners took their own lives rather than endure another day of torturous isolation.

Arizona | The cruelty of isolation: There’s nothing ‘humane’ about how we treat the condemned

On March 19, I served as a witness to the execution of a man named Aaron Gunches, Arizona’s first since 2022. During his time on death row, he begged for death and was ultimately granted what is likely more appropriately described as an emotionless state-assisted suicide. This experience has profoundly impacted me, leading to deep reflection on the nature of death, humanity, and the role we play in our final moments. When someone is in the end stages of life, we talk about hospice care, comfort, care, easing suffering and humane death. We strive for a “good death” — a peaceful transition. I’ve seen good ones, and I’ve seen bad, unplanned ones.

Execution date set for prisoner transferred to Oklahoma to face death penalty

An inmate who was transferred to Oklahoma last month to face the death penalty now has an execution date. George John Hanson, also known as John Fitzgerald Hanson, is scheduled to die on June 12 for the 1999 murder of 77-year-old Mary Bowles. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals on Tuesday set the execution date. The state’s Pardon and Parole Board has a tentative date of May 7 for Hanson’s clemency hearing, executive director Tom Bates said.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog