china's Death Penalty Reform
china has announced it will change its system of capital punishment so that its top court will review all death sentences. This transfers decision making out of the hands of local court, which often make mistakes and execute innocent people. The new process should reduce the number of miscarriages of justice. The new system could also reduce the total number of death sentences in China by a third. the president of the Supreme People's Court, Chief Justice Xiao Yang, said: "As few executions as possible should be carried out and as cautiously as possible, to avoid wrongful executions.
china executes more people each year than all other countries put together. china's government refuses to say how many people are killed, but Amnesty estimates more than 3,400 people were executed last year. Amnesty claims many of these people were wrongly executed. One case was recently discovered, sixteen year after the execution took place. The supposed victim of a man executed by firing squad was found alive and in prison. Mr. Yang said capital punishment "is reserved for guilty of the most atrocious crimes" but must be fair to avoid error.