China reduces number of crimes punishable by death

A draft revision of the criminal code in China reduces the penalty for thirteen offences from death to life imprisonment, according to the Guardian.

The affected crimes include tax dodging, credit note fraud, teaching criminal methods and smuggling endangered animals.

However, even if the revision is accepted, 55 crimes will still be punishable by death by lethal injection, including drug smuggling.

It is also proposed to increase the maximum life sentence from 20 to 25 years.

Catherine Baber, Amnesty International's deputy programme director for Asia, told the Guardian: "We welcome any genuine attempt to reduce the death penalty in China, but it is unclear whether this is legislative housekeeping that will have little effect on the overall number of executions.

"China could certainly make more meaningful reductions. We encourage them to make more effort to catch up with the global trend, which is to abolish the death penalty."

Swiss campaign to bring back the death penalty:

Meanwhile, in Switzerland campaigners have been given permission by the government to collect signatures for a referendum on the death penalty.

100,000 signatures are needed, according to the BBC.

However, the referendum could be blocked if reinstating the death penalty would contravene international agreements to which the Swiss are signatories.

Switzerland is a member of the Council of Europe, which has made abolition of the death penalty a prerequisite for membership.

My view:

I am opposed to the death penalty.

For one, it does not allow resolution of miscarriages of justice.

A person such as Stephen Downing released after many years in prison for a crime they did not commit has some chance to try to live a normal life. A person executed and then found innocent has no such chance.

Another concern is that more and more crimes could be punishable by the death penalty over time.

The Swiss campaigners want murder involving sexual abuse to be punishable by death.

Horrific as these crimes are, they are a fairly small percentage of the total number of crimes occurring in Switzerland each day. In China, by contrast, thousands of people are sentenced to death each year, often for minor crimes.

These campaigners would surely not want the death penalty to be used for smuggling antiquities or writing false VAT receipts for tax reimbursement, as it is in China.

China's draft proposal is welcome, a step forward for human rights in the country.. In the unlikely even of the death penalty being reinstated in Switzerland, it would be a step back for the Swiss.