March 16, 2005

China Hangs On to Death Penalty

Apparently China still believes in the death penalty...Premiere Wen Jiabo said at a press conference this week, "Given our national conditions, we cannot abolish the death penalty." However, he also says that reforms are in progress that would ensure the death penalty is used with more prudence.

The AP article says:

Activists complain that death sentences often are handed out during anti-crimecrackdowns for nonviolent offenses that weren't capital crimes at the time they were committed.

Some of those crimes apparently include not only murder, but tax evasion.

Now while I shudder at the thought of prisoners being killed for a non-violent crime such as evading their taxes (can you imagine what would have happened to a Chinese version of Martha Stewart?), I also notice that China doesn't seem to be worried about that much-sought after world opinion.

Interesting...I wonder if the Dem-keteers and the Supreme Court justices have read this article?

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