Op-Ed Contributors

Death to the death sentence

By Lin Wei (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-04-28 07:49

Convincing the public that capital punishment is of little use will be a tough task for jurists. Many in the public believe that the death sentence deters crimes and many people want to see corrupt officials pay with their lives for their grave offences.

And with the widening gap between the rich and the poor, this longing for the death sentence is often magnified with many people equating the death of corrupt officials with social justice. Their hostility toward injustice in society and their lack of confidence in the fight against corruption are demonstrated in their celebration of the executions of corrupt officials.

The problem I want to emphasize is that the death sentence is an illusory fulfillment of the public's sense of justice since there is no evidence that proves that corruption cases have fallen in number because of the threat of capital punishment.

Instead, a vicious circle has formed: The death sentence to nonviolent corrupt officials has only disappointed the public for being powerless in preventing more cases of corruption, but the disappointed public expects more ramifications from the execution of officials.

But another way for jurists and the central government to win public support is by taking stricter measures in fighting corruption, instead of simply resorting to capital punishment. Relying on capital punishment leads to a neglect of other important measures. Sentencing a corrupt official to death is often taken as a giant victory in fighting corruption, but repeated death sentences have also indicated systematic deficiencies in preventing corruption.

Let's be reminded that allowing one official to continue his corrupt ways instead of stopping him before it gets too late is definitely a major failure in our efforts to prevent corruption. What is in dire need are social mechanisms to effectively nab corruption at its initial, small stages.

Progress is needed in the supervision of officials in order to be more effective and efficient in preventing corruption. This is the root of our solution and at the core of how to satisfy the public's expectations of justice. Only through such progress can a bridge be established between the public and scholars. Only then will justice be done.

The author is professor and director of the Department of Law in China Youth University for Political Sciences. The story first appeared in Nanfang Weekly.

(China Daily 04/28/2010 page8)

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