Comparison of the Death Penalty: China vs United States Essay

The unite States of the States is one of the few countries that mum impose devastation sentences regularly. The slews nation of china is in the like manner one of these countries. some(prenominal) ar similar in that they be among the top executing countries in the world. thus far they differ in many a(prenominal) slipway such as, mortalas of offensive activitys that atomic number 18 oddment penalisation eligible, the number of populate that be penalise, footrace processes, and methods of functioning.I delve these to be the biggest divergencys amid The Peoples nation of china and the joined States of the States. single of the well-nigh grand things I came across when researching was the wide invest of offenses punishable by death in chinaw be. The most shocking of which, is those of non-violent nature. A type of non-violent crime that is routinely charged as a non bad(p) crime is scotch or professional crimes. In chinas Criminal Law, there ar sp ecific instances where economic crimes sewer be charged as capital crimes.In the cla aim, On Limiting and Abolishing the Death punishment for Economic Crimes in brinyland china, the power Bingzhi Zhao wrote, it is norm all toldy specified in chinaw ars Criminal Law that the death penalty is only(prenominal)(prenominal) applicable when the crime is of a oddly commodious tot up or of a particularly surd nature1. A particularly enormous amount or of a particularly sever nature refers to the amount of capital stolen or number of people combat in dialog box by the crime. What I consider to be a great parallel would be Bernie Madoff, who stole billions from investors and was sentences to 150 years in jail, which is the maximum sentence he could receive2.This leads me to trust if Bernie Madoff lived in china, he wouldve been executed. Although his crimes were particularly extreme point in the amount of gold he stole, he was non violent in any way shape or form. In the Stat es this simply has not cash in ones chipsed in the last century. It is my personal whimsy that crimes other than murder shouldnt be capital crimes, that I conceive it is plain wrong for a white-collar crime to be charged as a capital crime. There argon even accounts of drug dealers and people who fundraise illegal3.I personally know soulfulness arrested for dealing drugs, if he received a death sentence for his crime, it would be all told and utterly shocking. It is my belief that a non-violent crime shouldnt be punished in a violent way. The Peoples Republic of chinaware use of capital punishment is shrouded in silence. In an article in the Washington Post, the author(s) writes, The Chinese presidency has a long- have a bun in the ovening policy of not commenting on the death penalty and asseve marks the number of acts dark3. This rings true because it is impossible to mold a true visualize for executions in brinyland mainland mainland China. all in all figures that can be order are estimates. The Dui Hua Foundation estimates that China carried out 5,000 to 6,000 executions in the year 20073, duration amnesty International estimates there were at least(prenominal) 1,718 known executions in 2008 and in like manner states that there are in all likelihood many more than4. Amnesty International alike states that in 2008 the involve together States of America executed a total of 37 people4. Using Amnesty Internationals figures this means that the Peoples Republic of China executed more than forty-six propagation more people than America.With populations of 1. 3 billion and 310 zillion (estimates), respectively, China executed at least 1 out of either 750,000, and the get together States of America executed about 1 out of every 8,375,000 people. This adds up to China executing about 11 clock as many people per capita than the coupled States. One must also keep in mind that the figure of China executing 1,718 is also the at least nu mber the Dui Hua foundation estimated 5,000-6,000 executions in one year alone.If China thence executed 5,000, this would raise their per capita execution rate three times higher, to 33 times more executions per capita than America. trance there are countries who execute more than the United States of America besides China, they arent countries that America would like to be placed with. In go down order the ten countries with the highest executions are, China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United States, Pakistan, Iraq, Vietnam, Afghanistan, North Korea, and Japan4.Interestingly enough, American soldiers beget fought wars within the borders of six out of guild of these countries since World War II. The United States of America and China are the devil most powerful countries in the world reform now, yet they are in a list with the likes of under-developed countries like Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Saudi Arabia. China kills enormous amounts of people as compared to every other stat e of matter, and they also do so in a manner that the American Criminal Justice clay would consider passing unconstitutional.In the United States we use grand juries and/or preliminary hearings as a screening device to possess sure there is enough read to go to trial, whereas in the Peoples Republic of China, there is one person, called a Procurator, who screens exercises5. This causes the decision to go to trial exceedingly unfair, because the standard of infer in China is sufficient as opposed to American standard of beyond a commonsensical doubt. Also in the shell of a grand jury, there has to be more than one person agreeing the honorsuit can go to trial, whereas in China, only when one person decides whether a case is trial worthy.The largest balance between the two countries processes however, is not the use or privation thereof grand juries, nevertheless the difference lies in how trials are conducted. China uses the inquisitorial Model, where a judge dominat es the questioning and debating, and a panel of judges, not regular citizens, decides facts and applies the laws5. This could either seem like a terrific idea, or a great idea. holding the same group of judges rather of a jury, there is a genius of consistency.There is no unfair jury selection like in the American system that can usually be based on picking people of veritable races who are more likely to convict somebody of a certain race based on statistics. as yet at the same time, these men are judges and see all sorts of criminals, and are very likely to ideate that anybody arrested, is arrested for a just reason. These judges are also more likely to impose the law harshly, since they are government officials of a country whose government is known to violate many human rights. other huge difference between the two nations lies within the call downs process. In China, not only can the impeach appeal, moreover the Procurator can appeal as well if he or she feels that t he sentencing wasnt done correctly. The accuse is only given 10 days to ab initio file an appeal. If the accused appeals and loses, his sentence can only be lessened, but if a Procurator appeals, the sentence can be made more severe. In the United States, only the accused whitethorn appeal, the prosecutor is unable5. This process of Procurators appealing could never happen in the United States, based on the Fifth Amendment.It would be considered Double riskiness, since even if a court (aside from the imperious Peoples Court) finds him innocent, the procurator may appeal for a new trial. All of these difference cause many more injustices in China than America. There are even more injustices in the Chinese system. Amnesty International states, In China those facing capital charges do not receive fair trials. Failings include the want of prompt chafe to lawyers, a escape of arrogance of innocence, political interference in the judiciary and failure to exclude evidence extracted finished torture6.These failings pose a particular issue in China. One of the mentioned failings is lack of presumption of innocence. When a person in China is arrested, they are take overd guilty, and therefore a trial is almost only to prove his innocence, whereas in America we presume innocent until proven guilty and in trials, the prosecutor must prove guilt. Another failing is if the accused doesnt get access to a lawyer nimble enough, he could be put to death very rapidly because after a death sentence is approved the execution is carried out within 7 days7.The United States of America has long stays on death row, which take a fix of effect out of the execution, but also gives the accused time to appeal, and file all sorts of motions and requests for clemency. Amnesty International also states that China uses information that is extracted through torture. plot of land in the United States this does happen, it is never done so legally, and if a judge finds evidence was ext racted through torture, that evidence in unusable.These factors lack of access lawyers, unfair trial processes, and lack of presumption of innocence, all cause Chinas capital punishment statutes to seem extremely unjust and I would think that rather often even Chinese citizens are unsure of the reliability of their own system, but then I remember that a lot of what the government does is shrouded in secrecy so citizens dont in reality know. The general method of execution in The Peoples Republic of China is single gunshot to the head. Although China officially uses Lethal jibe as an option, it is still not used as much as gunshot to the head.An article in USA Today about methods of execution states, Prior to 1997, Chinas main form of execution was shooting. According to a 1998 report from Amnesty International, the Chinese root on reported 24 lethal-injection executions in that year, but the exact number is unknown8. This cite to me shows, that they have started to use lethal injection, but one must remember that China regularly executes well over grand piano people, so 24 by lethal injection is a start, but not nearly a majority whereas in America lethal Injection is the main method.Under post-Furman statutes there have been 1,070 executions in the United States. 01 of these executions were by lethal injection, followed by 153 of them by electrocution9. Lethal Injection accounts for 84. 2% of American executions (American Statistics were as of April 12, 2007) whereas Lethal Injection in China only accounted for at most, 2. 5% in 1998. These figures may be from different years but 2. 5% versus 84. 2% is a huge difference. The reason China would use gunshot to the head, in my opinion, is it saves money. The Chinese trial and appeals process, which is very unfluctuating in nature, saves money compared to the long and wasted out American process.Add to that figure that executions are carried out within 7 days of sentencing10. The Chinese definitely dan gle nowhere near the figures that Americans spend on Death Row, since Chinese executions occur in less than 7 days post-sentencing. Although I am just speculating on equal savings since these figures cannot be found imputable to Chinas secrecy on the subject of capital punishment. I think there is much to learn from the Chinese system when it comes to saving money and efficiency, although I strongly disagree with their lack of rights for defendants.While the differences outlined in this paper are not the only ones, they are the differences that I felt really separate the American and Chinese use of capital punishment. While the American government wastes tons of money on capital punishment, I think our higher standard of evidence and endless proceedings allow us to be surer that the right person is being executed, and although our system has many issues, I still would stand behind it over the system used in The Peoples Republic of China.