March 9
CHINA:
China's Chief Justice pledges to improve death penalty review process
China will further refine the death penalty review process this year,
Chief Justice Xiao Yang told the on-going annual session of the National
People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature, Wednesday.
Xiao Yang, president of the Supreme People's Court, said in his annual
work report that his court will promote reform in the justice system to
safeguard justice in jurisdiction.
The president did not elaborate on the details of reforms, but said
earlier when answering questions of the Human Rights magazine last month
that China strictly controls the application for death sentence and
strictly follows the procedures of passing death sentence.
China has implemented the policy of "combining punishment with leniency"
and oppose advocacy of "heavy penalty" and "severe punishments", he told
the magazine.
"To those convicted guilty of serious crimes, we approved the capital
punishment according to law," he told the parliament in his report. "To
those convicted of felony crimes but there were circumstances for
leniency, we would change the capital punishment to death penalty on
probation or life imprisonment according to law."
According to Xiao, China's courts at all levels sentenced a total of
767,951 convicted criminals last year, up 2.8 % from a year ago. Among the
convicted criminals, 19.04 % were sentenced to more than 5 years
imprisonment, life imprisonment and death penalty.
Some Chinese scholars have proposed abolishing capital punishment, but
many others did not agree. The issue has caused a heat debate.
Responding to the call to abolish all death penalty, the China Youth Daily
said in a recent report that China should reform its criminal punishment
system and set longer years behind bars than the maximum of 20 years
imprisonment before death penalty is gradually reduced.
(source: English People's Daily)
BOTSWANA:
Botswana Christian Council VP to Campaign Against Death Penalty
Reverend Kebinang Moenga, the vice president of the Botswana Christian
Council (BCC) said that he intends to launch a massive campaign against
the government in regards to capital punishment.
Reverend Kebinang Moenga, the vice president of the Botswana Christian
Council (BCC) said that he intends to launch a massive campaign against
capital punishment -- a practice he dubbed as a social evil that must be
done away with immediately.
"I think for a long time, Batswana have been quiet about capital
punishment, but it is about time we should move forward to campaign for
more support. We Batswana tend to be blind when we look at evil deeds like
death sentences," said Moenga, according to the Mmegi newspaper.
Botswana is a country of 1.5 million in Southern Africa. 15% are
Christian, according to the CIA fact book.
In the report, Moenga stated that those criminals that were found guilty
should be rehabilitated. Although the government is staunchly in support
of the death penalty, Moenga is undaunted and intends to fight by
preaching against it from a Christian perspective, he said the article. He
intends to fight hard "until sanity prevails over an evil."
Since its independence in 1968 until September 2003, there have been 34
executions of convicted criminals by hanging, according to
ditshwanelo.org.
"Capital punishment has been practiced for a long time here in Botswana
and of course many Batswana are supporting it," he said. "If they can
truly understand the evilness of this capital punishment, I am not seeing
many of them supporting it," he added.
To show his commitment to fight against capital punishment, he will
release a book locally on March 11 titled, "Evils of Capital Punishment,
an Ethical Perspective."
(source: The Christian Post)
