Abstract: Many countries in the world have abolished the death penalty, which seems to have become a trend. In this case, China should conform to this historical trend. What are the reasons for abolishing the death penalty in China?
[Keywords:] China abolished the death penalty.
Since the feudal society entered the modern society, great changes have taken place in the penalty system. Ancient inhuman punishments, such as death penalty, flogging and flogging, have been gradually replaced by modern western punishment system. In ancient times, those death sentences, such as beheading and smashing cars, were also replaced by some death sentences, such as shooting, acupuncture and poison gas, which could minimize people's suffering, so as to minimize the suffering of prisoners on death row and show respect for life.
But now the death penalty has not only lost its core position in the criminal law system, but also restricted, reduced or even abolished the death penalty has become a worldwide trend and trend. Now the voice of respecting human rights is getting stronger and stronger, and the right to life is an important part of human rights, so many countries have abolished the death penalty one after another. Life is the most precious thing for human beings. Once lost, life will never come back, and nothing can be said. Therefore, I think the abolition of the death penalty is a historical necessity, and China should abolish it.
As early as the late Qing Dynasty, the famous jurist Shen Jiaben put forward the viewpoint of restricting or even abolishing the death penalty. Starting from the traditional "king's way of benevolent governance", Shen Jiaben firmly believes: "Those who steal the way of governing the country with benevolent governance as the first priority and discuss the criminal law themselves can also say that they judge it with righteousness and push it with benevolence. However, the criminal law reform is light, which is an important task of today's benevolent government, that is, the purpose of revision. " He also stressed that "the way to educate people lies in politics and religion, not in punishment."
It can be seen that the idea of abolishing the death penalty has a long history, so what do I think is the reason why China should abolish the death penalty? Below, I will talk about my views.
First of all, after the reform and opening up, China actively joined the world market, and China became more and more internationalized. From June 4th, 2005 to October 4th, 2005 10, more than half of the countries in the world abolished the death penalty in law or practice. The details are as follows: 68 countries abolished the death penalty for all crimes, 65,438+065,438+0 for ordinary crimes, and 24 countries abolished the death penalty in practice. Therefore, 65,438+0,265,438+0 countries have abolished the death penalty in law or practice, and only 75 countries have retained it. In addition, the situation in recent decades shows that on average, three countries abolish the death penalty in law or practice every year. It can be seen that the abolition of the death penalty has become a trend in the world. Therefore, if China wants to better show its charm on the world stage and win the respect of more countries, it should be in line with the world and abolish the death penalty.
Secondly, the concept of "killing for life and paying back debts" has been deeply rooted in people's minds since the Western Han Dynasty, and it may still have a great influence on people. However, this concept is not an obstacle to the abolition of the death penalty in China.
Many times, if you ask people what to do if the murderer kills another person, they will definitely say that he should be sentenced to death, but what if the situation is not as simple as you think? For example, if A wants to rape B and B fails to succeed because of excessive defense and then kills A, then people may not think that B should be put to death, but will praise B for its bravery. For another example, when a man comes home, he sees his wife committing adultery with a third party, and in a rage, he hacked his wife and the third party to death with a kitchen knife. At this time, according to the current laws in China, this person will be put to death, but most of you may have some sympathy for this person and think that he should not be put to death. Any man who encounters this situation will lose control of his emotions for a while.
It can be seen that "killing for life" is largely restricted by conditions. What people really want to kill are criminals who commit the most heinous crimes and do great harm to society. But such criminals are not the majority in society, so why not abolish the death penalty?
Third, the death penalty is no more deterrent than life imprisonment. So far, no research has shown that there is an inevitable relationship between the incidence of felony and the abolition of death penalty. Studies have shown that people who are sentenced to death after committing crimes have no greater deterrent effect on society than life imprisonment. If they are sentenced to death, the crime rate will remain at the original level. In fact, the death penalty has never been an effective deterrent to crime. Because if a person knows when he will die, he may be afraid at first, but with the gradual acceptance of consciousness, he will not be too afraid when he actually executes the death penalty. It can be seen that the deterrence of the death penalty is difficult to last, and the consolidation period of deterrence is obviously shortened. If a person doesn't know when he will die and lives in speculation about his own death all day, then the deterrent is even greater. In western countries that have abolished the death penalty, heavy sentences will be sentenced to hundreds of years. China can learn from this punishment. Even if criminals behave well in prison and get their sentences reduced hundreds of years later, they still can't get out of prison, and the harm to society is even more out of the question.
Fourthly, when talking about a person being sentenced to death, most people may wonder whether the prisoner killed someone. In fact, it's not just murder that will be sentenced to death. Some economic criminals will be sentenced to death even if they are not guilty of murder. Economic crime is nothing more than bureaucratic corruption. Enterprises evade taxes and steal state property. The reason why they commit economic crimes is probably because they made mistakes in thought or were instigated by others. If the death penalty is executed immediately, it will be tantamount to depriving them of the opportunity to turn over a new leaf. It is entirely possible for them to become useful people for socialist construction after transformation, but once the right to subsistence is gone, how can they talk about turning over a new leaf? How can we talk about building the motherland better? From the perspective of correction theory, is it true that all condemned prisoners cannot be reformed? The death penalty deprives the penalty of its positive value and reform value.
Fifth, no one is perfect, as long as you are careful, you will make mistakes. Throughout the ages, there have been many unjust, false and wrong cases. Isn't Dou E in ancient China a good example?
Misjudged cases will not disappear with the progress of the times, just as even the most sophisticated instruments sometimes make mistakes. A few days ago, the German Association of International Journalists conducted a survey in Europe. The respondents were prosecutors, judges and other law enforcement personnel in European countries, as well as some lawyer organizations. The content of the investigation is the misjudgment rate of criminal felony cases. The survey results were unexpected, and the misjudgment rate of such cases was 0.5%. According to this, the Journalists Association concluded that there are at least hundreds of serious crimes in Europe every year. It can be seen that as a representative of civil law countries, Germany's unjust, false and misjudged cases have not disappeared with the progress of the times. Then it can be judged that the number of unjust, false and misjudged cases in China is quite large every year. The misjudgment rate of death penalty is high, and it is very difficult to find and rehabilitate unjust imprisonment. Life imprisonment should be abolished. If the death penalty is abolished, the suspect will be sentenced to life imprisonment, but once the truth is found out, the suspect will become a free man and everything can start again. If the death penalty is executed, he will not only be wronged, but also bring much pain to his family and relatives. I believe that the sentenced judge will never feel at ease.
Some scholars wrote in a style full of humanistic care: life makes people cherish it once; The beauty of life makes people sad; The pain of the relatives of the deceased is sympathetic; The fear before the criminal leaves makes people pity; Once the judgment error is difficult to correct, people will regret it; Any criminal has a reason to forgive.
In a word, life is precious. Once human life is deprived, there is no way to talk about it. So I discussed the reasons why I think China should abolish the death penalty from the above five aspects. However, judging from China's current national conditions, there is still a long way to go to abolish the death penalty in China. However, the death penalty has become a spent force and lost its prestige in the past. Abolishing the death penalty is the product of the high development of human legal civilization and the general direction of penalty reform. Abolishing the death penalty is a historical necessity, so I will still be full of confidence. I believe that the death penalty will come to an end and enter the history museum. After all, there will be no more death penalty in China one day!
[References]
1, Cui Min: Textual Research on Death Penalty-Historical Realistic Future, China People's Public Security University Press, 2008.
2. Chen Qin: Factual Errors in Criminal Law, China People's Public Security University Press, 2008.
3. He Xianbing: The Application of Death Penalty and Its Value Orientation, China People's Public Security University Press, 2008.
4. Huang: Research on Death Penalty for Violent Crimes, China People's Public Security University Press, 2008.
5. Li Jiaofa: On Shen Jiaben's View of Abolishing the Death Penalty, Modern Law, 2005.
6. Zhao Bingzhi, editor-in-chief: Exploration of the Road to Abolish the Death Penalty in China, China People's Public Security University Press, 2004.
7. Zhao Bingzhi, Editor-in-Chief: Research Report on Death Penalty Reform, Law Press, 2007.