From AP:
China should reduce the number of death sentences it carries out, but the world’s leading executioner of prisoners cannot afford to do away with capital punishment altogether, the country’s top legal bodies said.
In a joint statement released late Sunday, the Supreme People’s Court, Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of Justice and the country’s top prosecutor also said condemned prisoners should not be paraded through the streets and suspects should not be tortured.
China is believed to carry out more court-ordered executions than all other nations combined. Amnesty International says China executed at least 1,770 people in 2005 _ about 80 percent of the world’s total.
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Related article via China Daily: Procedures Detailed for Death Penalties says, “The order admits that some wrong death sentences in recent years have exposed loopholes in judicial procedures. It stresses that all law enforcement organs should cooperate with each other in dealing with such cases to ensure that every death sentence is handled fairly.”
