CHINA, NATIONAL, SOCIETY, EDITORIAL: Abolish the Death Penalty in China, Yes or No?
By Li Jiajia
In recent days, conferences and debates concerning the abolishment of capital punishment in China were held in many big universities in Beijing. Different voices were heard, and the topic drew a lot of people's attention.
Should capital punishment be abolished in China? My answer is "yes."
Firstly, the death penalty is not an effective means of punishment. The purpose of punishing criminals is to bring justice to the victims and to keep similar cases from happening. However, capital punishment fails to do either. To sentence a criminal to death can make him suffer physically, but spiritually he can't realize his guilt. He may feel regretful when receiving the verdict, but it's not for the misfortune of his victims; it is for his own ending that he grieves.
After just one shot, the sense of guilt vanishes like so much smoke. In other words, killing criminals cannot really do justice to their victims. On the contrary, it is a kind of relief to criminals like Ma Jiajue, who did something extremely vicious. (He killed his four roommates in college).
As for the prevention of crimes, the facts from past years are not very convincing. Since 1979, when the first penal code was passed, the number of crimes for which the death penalty can be applied has increased greatly, but serious crimes continue to occur. Some people say that without the death penalty there would be more serious crimes, but facts from many foreign countries that have abolished capital punishment fails to prove so or even proves otherwise. As a famous scholar of law said, "What has sanction on crime is not the severity of punishment but its inevitability." The threat of the death penalty is probably just our illusion.
Secondly, capital punishment has serious negative effects. "Since you have robbed someone of his life, so the law will rob your life." This 'eye for eye; blood for blood' logic is actually a form of revenge in the name of the nation. This, in my opinion, can do no good to the harmony of society. Moreover, too many examples of the death penalty will impress upon people the idea that life can be deprived so casually, which will pose difficulty to the fostering of a healthy and humane society.
The death penalty also leaves no room for remedy. Those who are wrongly condemned have no chance of coming back to life. As a matter of fact, such cases are not unusual in China, where the legal system is still very incomplete and not transparent.
Besides the negative effects above, there are also cases where a criminal accidentally kills someone and then chooses to go on killing because he knows he has no option other than receiving the death penalty.
Based on the two reasons I have stated, I believe the abolishment of capital punishment is a historical trend. However, by holding this opinion I am not advocating making the transformation overnight. As the saying goes, "haste makes waste," we must carry out the reform step by step.
In my opinion, the top priority now is to reduce the number of crimes that the death penalty can be applied to. Life imprisonment can be a good substitute. Long-term imprisonment of more than ten years is also helpful. Consequently, of course, laws concerning adjudication also need to be more transparent, because under the complicated system in present China, life imprisonment can usually be reduced to only 11 years of imprisonment due to judicial loopholes.
Though the road to abolishing capital punishment is lined with difficulties, we must begin to prepare now, because it is the historical trend. To abolish it or not, it is just a matter of time.
In recent days, conferences and debates concerning the abolishment of capital punishment in China were held in many big universities in Beijing. Different voices were heard, and the topic drew a lot of people's attention.
Should capital punishment be abolished in China? My answer is "yes."
Firstly, the death penalty is not an effective means of punishment. The purpose of punishing criminals is to bring justice to the victims and to keep similar cases from happening. However, capital punishment fails to do either. To sentence a criminal to death can make him suffer physically, but spiritually he can't realize his guilt. He may feel regretful when receiving the verdict, but it's not for the misfortune of his victims; it is for his own ending that he grieves.
After just one shot, the sense of guilt vanishes like so much smoke. In other words, killing criminals cannot really do justice to their victims. On the contrary, it is a kind of relief to criminals like Ma Jiajue, who did something extremely vicious. (He killed his four roommates in college).
As for the prevention of crimes, the facts from past years are not very convincing. Since 1979, when the first penal code was passed, the number of crimes for which the death penalty can be applied has increased greatly, but serious crimes continue to occur. Some people say that without the death penalty there would be more serious crimes, but facts from many foreign countries that have abolished capital punishment fails to prove so or even proves otherwise. As a famous scholar of law said, "What has sanction on crime is not the severity of punishment but its inevitability." The threat of the death penalty is probably just our illusion.
Secondly, capital punishment has serious negative effects. "Since you have robbed someone of his life, so the law will rob your life." This 'eye for eye; blood for blood' logic is actually a form of revenge in the name of the nation. This, in my opinion, can do no good to the harmony of society. Moreover, too many examples of the death penalty will impress upon people the idea that life can be deprived so casually, which will pose difficulty to the fostering of a healthy and humane society.
The death penalty also leaves no room for remedy. Those who are wrongly condemned have no chance of coming back to life. As a matter of fact, such cases are not unusual in China, where the legal system is still very incomplete and not transparent.
Besides the negative effects above, there are also cases where a criminal accidentally kills someone and then chooses to go on killing because he knows he has no option other than receiving the death penalty.
Based on the two reasons I have stated, I believe the abolishment of capital punishment is a historical trend. However, by holding this opinion I am not advocating making the transformation overnight. As the saying goes, "haste makes waste," we must carry out the reform step by step.
In my opinion, the top priority now is to reduce the number of crimes that the death penalty can be applied to. Life imprisonment can be a good substitute. Long-term imprisonment of more than ten years is also helpful. Consequently, of course, laws concerning adjudication also need to be more transparent, because under the complicated system in present China, life imprisonment can usually be reduced to only 11 years of imprisonment due to judicial loopholes.
Though the road to abolishing capital punishment is lined with difficulties, we must begin to prepare now, because it is the historical trend. To abolish it or not, it is just a matter of time.
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