Beijing Begins “Thunder” Anti-Crime Operation in Preparation for National Day

北京开展“惊雷”行动打击刑事犯罪确保国庆平安

Xinhua News, 2009-06-30

In preparation for the 60^th Anniversary of the PRC's founding on 1 October, the Beijing Public Security Bureau announced the beginning of an anti-crime operation dubbed “thunder” to “strike hard all kinds of criminal offenses according to law.” The operation seeks to maintain a level of public security equal to that of last year's Olympic Games. In the first half of 2009, Beijing police have reportedly solved 90.05% of all murder cases and 100% of all kidnappings. Compared to the same period last year, the overall rate of criminal incidences in Beijing is down 2.8% and the incidence rate of the eight most “dangerous and serious crimes”—including murder, kidnapping, rape and robbery—is down 19.8%.

Supreme Court Issues Death Penalty Guidelines for Drug-related Cases

最高法院统一毒品犯罪死刑标准 5种情形可判处死刑立即执行

Xinhua News, 2009-06-26

In preparation for International Anti-Drug Day, the Supreme People's Court issued new capital punishments sentencing guidelines for drug-related cases. According to the new guidelines, five types of circumstances qualify for the death penalty with immediate execution (as opposed to a two year reprieve which often leads to a reduced sentence of life imprisonment). The circumstances include drug gang leaders who use armed protection and violently resist inspection and arrest or “participate in organized international drug trafficking activities.” Also included are repeat offenders who use or entice juveniles to smuggle, sell, transport or manufacture illegal drugs or sell drugs to juveniles in quantities exceeding the death penalty minimum standards (not given). State employees who use their official positions to facilitate drug crimes are subject to capital sentences as well.

Six Executions Announced for International Anti-Drug Day

最高法院公布4起毒品死刑案件 6犯人被执行死刑

Xinhua News, 2009-06-25

The day before International Anti-Drug Day (26 June), the Supreme People's Court publicized four major drug cases involving six death sentences and announced that those sentences had been carried out the same morning. One defendant, Wang Li, was found guilty of orchestrating the manufacture and transport of approximately 35 kilograms of ketamine. Three defendants, Wang Xilin, Lu Gang, and Zhou Zhenjun, received capital sentences for smuggling, trafficking, and manufacturing methamphetamines and ammunitions from Myanmar. Another case involved the smuggling and trafficking of heroin from Myanmar.

Deng Yuqiao Case Highlights Problems in Criminal Procedure Law

邓玉娇案中被冷落的程序疑点

Southern Weekend, 2009-06-24

The recent Deng Yuqiao case—in which Deng stabbed two Dandong County officials in alleged self-defense and was found guilty of using excessive force but exempted from criminal punishment—has forced Chinese legal scholars to consider the “fairness” of China's criminal procedure law. Many feel that the intense media attention on Deng's case helped protect her rights in ways that formal criminal procedure does not. For example, Deng's initial legal team from Beijing requested that police obtain physical evidence (Deng's undergarments) that might prove she was sexually assaulted, and local investigators fulfilled the request. The criminal procedural law, however, only allows defendant's counsel to make requests for evidence after the case has been sent to prosecutors, after the investigation phase. During the investigation phase, defendant's lawyers in effect only act as “legal helpers” and not genuine criminal defenders. Qinghua University professor Yi Yanyou feels that while substantial justice was delivered in the case, without procedural justice, there is little guarantee that substantial justice is available in the vast majority of cases where public scrutiny is absent.

Ministry of Justice Releases Coercive Drug Rehabilitation

我国一年来共收容、收治戒毒人员近11万人

Xinhua News, 2009-06-24

In preparation for International Anti-Drug Day, the Ministry of Justice announced that administrative legal proceedings—conducted by police and MoJ officials without the courts or procuratorates—had sent nearly 110,000 people to China's 179 “coercive isolation drug rehabilitation centers” in the last year. According to Justice Vice-Minister Chen Xunqiu, the MOJ has reassigned medical personnel from the reeducation through labor system to the coercive drug rehabilitation centers.

Reporter Reflects on Hundreds of Interviews with Juvenile Offenders

百名少年犯的黑色记忆——关注未成年人犯罪

Xinhua News, 2009-06-23

Xinhua reporter Qiao Yunhua interviewed over two hundred juvenile offenders while researching a book on contemporary juvenile crime in China. Her sensationalized reflections on the interviews highlight inordinately violent and extreme cases but also reveal crime trends allegedly recognized by leading Chinese researchers: crime in China is becoming more violent and being committed by younger people. According to the Chinese Juvenile Crime Research Association, “in recent years, total juvenile crime has accounted for over 70% of all crime in China,” and 15- and 16-year-old minors commit over 70% of all juvenile crime. Juvenile crime is reportedly rising throughout the world—with examples from England and the USA cited—and while Qiao does not directly speculate on the causes, she appears to suggest the negative influences of television and the internet as causes.

New State Compensation Law to Include Defendants Found Not Guilty

中国拟修法规定判决宣告无罪的被拘留逮捕者可获国家赔偿

Xinhua News, 2009-06-22

During its review process of draft amendments to the State Compensation Law, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress approved state compensation for people “detained or arrested in accordance to criminal procedural rules whose cases were dropped, not prosecuted, or declared not guilty and not subject to further criminal investigation.” Defendants will no longer need to prove that officials acted “illegally” or contrary to procedural requirements. However, defendants initially detained or charged on criminal matters but later given administrative punishments or demerits will not qualify for compensation, which is approved and distributed by local government “compensation committees.”

Law Student Employment Ranks Second to Last Among College Majors

法学毕业生就业率倒数第二反思

Xinhua News, 2009-06-19

According to the official 2009 China University Student Employment Report, undergraduate students majoring in law and “related majors” reported the second lowest employment rate among all university majors. Among those law students who did find work, only 47% found jobs within the legal field. The problem stems largely from the rapid expansion of law departments over the last decade as schools raced to increase overall enrollment. Many colleges that previously did not offer legal studies and whose educational mission clearly does not include the law—for example a railway medical school—have also established law departments, leading to an excess of poorly-trained and unprepared law graduates. Another problem is law students' sole focus on the few law firm and government jobs in major cities, while many counties in rural China are desperately lacking legal professionals.

Deliberation of Draft Amendments to State Compensation Law

国家赔偿法修订二审在即 惩罚性赔偿仍未列入

Xinhua News, 2009-06-18

After announcing progress in drafting amendments to China's State Compensation Law in October, 2008, the NPC's Standing Committee is scheduled to deliberate on the new amendments at the end of this month. Sometimes referred to as the “non-compensation law” because of its low compensation levels and narrow scope, the law's new amendments reportedly do not include provisions for award of punitive damages that many legal scholars have been urging. The new amendments are rumored to include clear guidelines for awards of emotional distress, capping them at five times the nations' average annual salary (146,145RMB in 2009). Compensation for wrongly-convicted defendants under the law as it exists now seems to vary widely; one innocent man who spent over ten years in prison received only 300,000RMB in state compensation while another who was in prison for exactly ten years got over 700,000RMB.

Deng Yuqiao Exempted from Criminal Punishment in Dandong Stabbing Case

邓玉娇案一审判决免除处罚

Caijing Online, 2009-06-16

After a two hour trial in which her defense attorney argued for her innocence based on self-defense, the Dandong County (Hubei Province) People's Court found Deng Yuqiao guilty of “the crime of intentional injury” in the death of Deng Guida (no relation) but exempted her from criminal punishment because of three mitigating circumstances: her actions constituted self-defense—albeit with excessive force, hence her guilt—her cooperation with police qualified as voluntary surrender, and the forensic psychiatric diagnosis of her bipolar mood disorder determined her to have “partial limited criminal responsibility.” It is not clear if Deng's lawyers suggested Deng Guida was attempting to rape her. The court's judgment describes Huang Dezhi—who Deng also stabbed but survived, and whose injuries were not included in the prosecution's indictment of Deng—and Deng Guida's actions toward Deng as “unreasonable badgering, pushing, pulling and shoving, spoken insults, and other unlawful infringements.” In an interview, Deng's two attorneys, whose integrity have been questioned after they replaced the Beijing lawyers Deng's mother mysteriously fired and their background as legal advisers to the Hubei government was revealed, stated they did not know if Deng planned to appeal the conviction. They also declined to offer their opinion of the verdict.