The reform of the punishment system is the key task for China at present. Through introducing lengthy terms of imprisonment that is longer than 20 years or 30 years, China will gradually reduce application of death penalty, said Zhang Jun, China's vice Minister of Justice and vice president of the China Law Society at a forum on "criminal law and protection of human rights" held on Jan 16.

It is hard to abolish the death penalty in practice for the time being in China. The criminal laws should take unity of crackdown on crime and protection of human rights into consideration. One practical means is to reform the punishment system by adding lengthy terms of imprisonment that is longer than 20 or 30 years. According to statistics released by the Ministry of Justice, many criminals who are sentenced life imprisonment for violent crimes actually stay in prisons for just 15 to 16 years. He suggested that those who are sentenced life imprisonment should be kept in prison for at least 25 years. In this way, the criminal's desire to commit crimes will vanish as they are freed at about 55 years old.

After the lengthy term of imprisonment is adopted, the courts will naturally reduce application of death penalty. The legislative organs will gradually take reduction of crimes punishable by death into consideration in the future, said Zhang.

By People's Daily Online