2016年世界死刑报告：世界处死人数中国占大半

2016

年世界死刑报告：世界处死人数中国占大半

Hong Kong (CNN)Every year, the Chinese state carries out

several thousand judicial executions -- more than the rest of the

world combined. For the most part, the names of those executed

remain secret, known only to their families. All figures about the

death penalty, as well as most details about executions, remain

classified as 'state secrets,' part of a deliberate effort by China's

rulers to hide from public view the horrifying scale of the

country's capital punishment system.

Secret killingsWhile

China is by far the most secretive country in the world over the

scale of its executions, it is not alone. Secrecy is often a telltale

sign of countries determined to continue with capital

punishment. In Vietnam, shocking information disclosed earlier

this year revealed that the authorities had executed 429 people

between mid-2013 to mid-2016, propelling it into third place in

the world's league table of executioners for that period. Read

MoreIn Malaysia, parliamentary pressure finally led to

revelations last year that nine people were executed in the first

nine months of the year, more than had previously been

alarming revelations go against the worldwide

trend of abandoning this cruel and ineffective punishment:

excluding China, the number of executions worldwide in 2016

was down 37% from the previous year with 1,032 executions,

according to Amnesty International's latest annual report on the

death penalty worldwide. Miscarriages of justiceChina's

criminal justice system is also plagued by insurmountable

defects. With a conviction rate standing above 99% and a

majority of criminal cases tried without a lawyer in the

courtroom, the odds of defendants receiving a fair trial are

abysmally low. The risks of miscarriage of justice and wrongful

executions are exacerbated by a judicial system that is not

independent and continues to convict on evidence based on

'confessions' -- often coerced or extracted through torture. Take

the case of Nie Shubin, a 20-year-old executed by firing squad

in 1995. Last December a court overturned his conviction, but

that verdict came 21 years too late for him. If justice delayed is

justice denied, then Nie Shubin's is a case of a justice system

disgraced. Nie Shubin's tragically-belated exoneration was

lauded by state media as evidence recent legal reforms are

working, so why do the authorities remain so intent on

concealing details of executions today? What happened to Nie

could still happen today. The government knows it and that

could be one of the reasons why they continue to cultivate