Policy “Opinion” Seeks to Standardize Probation System

五部门出台意见加强和规范监外执行防止脱管漏管

Xinhua News, 2009-07-28

Five government departments—the Central Public Security Comprehensive Management Committee, Supreme People's Court, Supreme People's Procuratorate, Ministry of Public Security and Ministry of Justice—jointly issued an “Opinion Regarding Strengthening and Standardizing Serving Sentences Outside Prison Work.” The “Opinion” calls for closing loopholes and gaps in the current probation system to reduce recidivism and “guarantee the proper execution of criminal punishments and promote social harmony and stability.” Procuratorate offices are to take a more active role in supervising both those on probation, and the other criminal justice organs (courts, police, prisons and detention centers) that should be monitoring parolees. The “Opinion” also calls for increased enforcement of probation revocation.

Editorial Explores How to Gain Public Support for Criminal Reconciliation

刑事和解制度该如何取信于民

Beijing News, 2009-07-26

The public's response to the Beijing First Intermediate Court's new criminal reconciliation system—in which defendants who perpetrate minor criminal offenses upon individuals may receive reduced or remitted punishment if they “reach an understanding,” usually involving financial compensation, with their victim—has been cautious and doubtful, according to an editorial in the Beijing News. “People's greatest worry is that it will devolve into 'paying money to buy a sentence.'” These fears are reasonable, the editorial argues, as social divisions increase alongside the growing gap between rich and poor and judicial corruption is common. It suggests the Supreme People's Court and Procuratorate jointly issue detailed and practical regulations governing exactly what types of cases qualify for criminal reconciliation and the procedures to be followed. Third party supervision, carried out by “lawyers, law professors, retired judges, journalists and ordinary residents” is also necessary. The editorial concludes by calling for a unified national criminal reconciliation fund that indigent defendants may draw from so they can have the same chance at gaining commuted and remitted sentences.

Public Security Ministry Vows to Get Rid of “Prison Bullies”

公安部要求坚决铲除滋生“牢头狱霸”的土壤

Xinhua News, 2009-07-27

“Safety First” is a major theme in the Ministry of Public Security's newly released “Opinion Regarding Further Strengthening and Improving of Public Security Supervision Work,” which outlines areas of reform in police-managed detention facilities. Among those reforms is a vow to “resolutely weed out any 'prison bully' growth from the earth” by: strictly forbidding the practice of using detainees to manage other detainees; enforcing the requirement that detention center personnel directly manage and supervise detainees; and creating a complete system for preventing the emergence of and striking hard against prison bullies, including “transitional supervision cells” and special observance of new detainees. Also detailed in the “Opinion” are requests for increased financial support and spending oversight—especially to prevent funds intended for detainee meals being diverted to other expenditures—and further supervision, both public and undercover, by procurators, people's congress representatives and others.

Shanxi Court and Juvenile Reformatory Showcase New Reduced Sentencing Policy

减刑、“矫正式审判”:中国针对未成年人创新司法

Xinhua News, 2009-07-25

The Taiyuan (Shanxi Province) Intermediate Court announced reduced sentences and early release for 185 convicted juvenile offenders at the Shanxi Provincial Juvenile Reformatory. The largest sentence reduction was one year and eleven months, the shortest three months. Under new regulations, juvenile offenders may apply for consideration for shortened sentences once a year, and courts, in consultation with reformatory personnel, may reduce applicants' sentences by three months to three years, based on the degree of repentance and contrition offenders have shown and how much meritorious service they have preformed. Juvenile reformatory officials in Shanxi have complimented the new regulations with increased education; all “students” in the reformatory take one thousand hours of classes every year in “culture, technology, and mental health,” with many receiving vocational certificates in more than one technical field.

Verdicts and Sentences Announced in Xishui Child Rape Case

贵州习水嫖宿幼女案宣判：一人无期七人重刑

Southern Weekend, 2009-07-24

Just under one month after holding a one-day, non-public trial, the Zunyi (Guizhou Province) Intermediate Court announced the verdicts and sentences for eight defendants in the Xishui County (Guizhou) child rape case. The court found Yuan Ronghui guilty of enticing and forcing 10 girls (three under the age of 14) into prostitution and sentenced her to life imprisonment. Seven other defendants—six local government officials and one vocational high school teacher—were found guilty of “whoring with young girls” and received sentences ranging from 14 to 7 years fixed-term imprisonment. Earlier national media attention had focused on why prosecutors had not brought charges of rape (as statutorily allowed when the victim is under 14-years-old), with prosecutors first responding that “whoring with young girls” allowed more substantial minimum sentencing and later saying statutory rape required specific intent and knowledge, evidence of which was lacking.

Urumqi Courts “Standing Firm at Their Posts, Promoting Stability”

乌鲁木齐两级法院立足岗位促稳定

Xinhua News, 2009-07-24

In the wake of the “7-5” Urumqi riots, the city's intermediate and basic-level courts' Party organizations have begun “anti-separatist struggle education” aimed at court cadres of all ethnicity. Besides making cadres aware of the “intensity, complexity and length of the struggle against separatism,” the courts are organizing efforts to go into the local community and “preach about the true facts of the “7-5” incident to each house and every family.” The courts are also emphasizing national unity among their own ranks, with Han and Uighur court personnel studying each other's languages.

China's First Death Sentence for Causing Automobile Accident

为什么判死刑 全国首起因交通事故被判极刑案释疑

Xinhua News, 2009-07-24

The Chengdu (Sichuan Province) Intermediate Court found 30-year-old Sun Weiming guilty of “endangering public safety through dangerous means” and sentenced him to death. Sun, who pledged he would appeal the sentence, crashed head-on into oncoming traffic, resulting in four deaths, as he allegedly attempted to pass in a double-yellow-line, no-pass zone while driving extremely intoxicated and over the speed limit (134-138kph in a 60kph zone), all while fleeing the scene of an earlier accident. Sun did not have a driver's license and had been cited for six moving violations—including speeding and failure to stop at a traffic light—in the seven months preceding the accident. The court described the circumstances of Sun's acts as “especially egregious and the results especially serious.” Because Sun “ignored the safety of the lives, health and property of an unqualified majority of people and the results of his reckless endangerment, [the element of] objective intent is extremely obvious.”

“'Handle Affairs According to Law,' Not 'Find a Law to Handle People'”

“依法办事”不是“找法办人”

Southern Weekend, 2009-07-22

An op-ed in Southern Weekend denounces two recent cases of criminal prosecution for alleged defamation as “nothing more than the weak masses reporting the perversions of law and corruption of local officials.” In neither case—one involving a citizen writing online about the corruption of his local township Party secretary, the other alleging that a local girl had died after being gang raped—was the “social order severely endangered” or “national interests” concretely damaged, as Article 246 of the criminal code describes criminal defamation. After noting that “protecting freedom of speech and cautiously using legal codes to mete out punishments has already become an international trend,” the op-ed further argues that “if this tendency to suppress new media's information dissemination and expressions of speech is not checked, then the nation's laws will become [corrupt officials'] personal law . . . and a new kind of local plague will run rampant throughout the over two thousand county and district level governments, damaging the nation's image.”

Supreme Court Reverses Death Penalty After Mediating with Victim's Family

情法并融力筑和谐 最高院依法调解一起故意杀人案

Xinhua News, 2009-07-22

After “meticulously and patiently conducting mediation work” with a murder victim's family, the Supreme People's Court declined to approve the death sentence of Deng Yongwang—found guilty of killing his former girlfriend, Wen Qiaoying—and remanded the case for retrial. Because the incident arose from a “love dispute,” the “circumstances and method of the crime were ordinary,” Deng acted to save Wen after injuring her, and he “sincerely repented the crime,” the Shanxi High Court and Supreme People's Court both decided that the case “did not demand death,” despite the repeated demands from Wen's family for Deng's execution and their refusal to accept financial compensation from his family. The Supreme People's Court attempted further mediation with Wen's family in the hopes of both preventing further bloodshed between the two families and “implementing the policy of 'strictly controlling and cautiously using the death penalty.'” After two trips to Shanxi, the court convinced Wen's family to accept a “reconciliation agreement” whereby they received 280,000RMB in compensation from Deng's family in exchange for “expressing forgiveness.”

Nearly Half of Provincial High Court Presidents No Judicial Experience

全国高院院长近一半系党政领导出身

Southern Weekend, 2009-07-20

Of the 30 currently-serving provincial (including directly-controlled municipalities and autonomous regions) high court presidents, 14 have career backgrounds in only non-judicial “Party and government leadership.” The president of the Henan high court, Zhang Liyong, for example, served as a village branch secretary, state-owned ocean fishery employee, and both mayor and Party secretary of Xianyang, Shanxi, before being assigned Party secretary and then president of the court. Several of the non-judicial career track presidents have law-related academic degrees: An Dong, head of the Shanxi high court, has a PhD in “constitutional and administrative science.” 14 other presidents have “standard judicial career track” backgrounds, while another two, leaders of the Jilin and Jiangsu high courts, come directly from academia.