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Using sentencing evidence to effectively establish the balanced application of the death penalty in China

Document Cited in Related
AuthorXu Huijun
DOI10.1177/1365712716674802
Published date01 January 2017
Date01 January 2017
Article
Using sentencing evidence
to effectively establish
the balanced application
of the death penalty in China
Xu Huijun
China University of Political Science and Law, Beijing, China
Abstract
Whether a death sentence is fair or not is an fundamental question for a country’s criminal
justice system, yet in practice, similar cases still occasionally receive differing judgments. In
response to this problem, this paper has proposed to take sentencing evidence as the
breakthrough for the balanced application of death penalty. This paper begins by analysing
written judgments from 40 cases, which involve 69 individuals and have been sampled from all
those archived under the Gazettes section by the Beidafabao,
1
Peking University Centre for
Legal Information. This analysis provides considerable insight into the type of sentencing
evidence admitted in capital cases, as well as the impact that principal evidence has on where
death sentences are imposed. Next, in accordance with the basic problems of evidence law,
this paper separates out sentencing evidence of capital cases from conventional theories that
confuse it with convictions. Taking sentencing evidence as the core, the objective of the
empirical analysis and theoretical discussion is to establish guidelines as well as a policy
analysis for capital cases in China in the future.
Keywords
capital case, death penalty, sentencing evidence
Introduction
Sentencing involves answering questions as to whether a criminal is to be punished, what type of
punishment to be given and its severity. The core challenge of sentencing is to solve the problem of
Corresponding author:
Xu Huijun, China University of Political Science and Law, 25 Xitucheng Rd, Haidian, Beijing, China.
E-mail: Huijunlaw@sina.com
1. 许慧君[Xu Huijun] 中国政法大学博士、印第安纳大学博士研究生[Ph.D. of China University of Political Science and
Law; S.J.D. candidate of Indiana University].
The International Journalof
Evidence & Proof
2017, Vol. 21(1-2) 143–157
ªThe Author(s) 2016
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DOI: 10.1177/1365712716674802
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