Xinhua News, 2009-05-18
In an interview, Zhang Liyong, president of the Henan Province High Court, defended the court's recent experiments with including “people's representatives” in death penalty review cases. Zhang said the practice allows the court to better understand “local popular sentiment” but in no way constitutes “trial by public opinion.” He remarked that the “Western jury system,” though effective in preventing corruption, is “unsuitable to Chinese conditions,” and local changes to and expansion of the People's Assessor system are not an indigenization of the jury system. Zhang also defended the legality of the court's experiments, including in the inclusion of sentencing arguments in pre-verdict court hearings, against suggestions they contradict China's procedural laws.
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