criminal law
Article 48: The death penalty is only applicable to criminals who commit extremely serious crimes. The death penalty shall be submitted to the Supreme People's Court for approval, except for those sentenced by the Supreme People's Court according to law. If the death penalty is suspended, it may be decided or approved by a higher people's court.
Article 49: People under the age of 18 at the time of committing a crime or women who are pregnant at the time of trial shall not be subject to the death penalty. The death penalty does not apply to people who have reached the age of 75 at the time of trial, except those who have caused death by particularly cruel means.
Article 50: If there is no intentional crime during the suspended execution of the death penalty, it shall be commuted to life imprisonment after the expiration of two years; If there is indeed a significant meritorious service, after the expiration of two years, it will be reduced to 25 years in prison; If the crime is intentional and the circumstances are bad, the death penalty shall be executed after being reported to the Supreme People's Court for approval; If the death penalty is not executed due to intentional crime, the suspended execution period of death penalty shall be recalculated and reported to the Supreme People's Court for the record.
The people's court may, according to the circumstances of the crime and personal danger, decide to limit or reduce the punishment for recidivists sentenced to death with a reprieve and criminals sentenced to death with a reprieve for intentional homicide, rape, robbery, kidnapping, arson, explosion, throwing dangerous substances or organized violent crimes.
It can be seen that the death penalty is applicable to criminals who commit extremely serious crimes, that is, criminals whose criminal punishment is particularly harmful to the interests of the country and the people and whose circumstances are particularly bad.
Applicable standards
20 1 1 On May 24th, 2008, the Supreme Court issued its annual work report for 20 10, stating that when the Supreme Court tried the death penalty review cases, it was not necessary to sentence the death penalty to be executed immediately, and all of them were sentenced to death penalty with a two-year suspension.
Unify the applicable standards of death penalty
According to the report, the Supreme Court insists on hearing all death penalty cases in the second instance, strictly grasps and unifies the application standards of the death penalty, and ensures that the death penalty is only applicable to a very small number of criminals with extremely serious crimes. In accordance with the requirements of the criminal policy of combining leniency with severity, those who are given a lighter or mitigated punishment according to law shall be given a lighter or mitigated punishment according to law; If it is not necessary to be sentenced to death immediately, the death penalty shall be suspended for two years.
At the same time, carry out mediation in incidental civil litigation in accordance with the law, promote the victims and defendants of crimes caused by intensified civil disputes to reach an understanding agreement, try not to be sentenced to death immediately according to law, and resolve social contradictions to the greatest extent.