The Supreme People's Court of China on Wednesday issued a notice, requiring local courts to open court session when hearing cases of death sentence in second instance as from 2006, in a bid to ensure the justice and openness of trial of death sentence cases.

Beginning from Jan. 1, 2006, the notice said, the second instance of cases of death sentence with major controversy should be heard in public, and from July 1, 2006, all death sentence cases in second instance should be heard in open court.

It is another important step taken by the Supreme People's Court (SPC) to reform its trial of death sentence case, after the SPC announced to retrieve the power of approving death penalty from provincial higher people's court in October.

"To trial second instance of death penalty in open court session is conducive to improving protection of human rights. It serves as a procedural guarantee for preventing misjudge in death sentence cases," said a leading official of the Supreme People's Court on Wednesday.

According to China's Criminal Procedural Law, a people's court shall open a court session to hear a case of second instance protested by a people's procuratorate. For other cases of appeal, a people's court shall, in principle, open a court session to hear. For cases, whose facts are clear, it is not necessary to hear in public.

In reality, many courts failed to hear death penalty cases in second instance in public. From the beginning of 2005, Chinese media exposed several misjudged death sentence cases, criticizing that courts lack a cautious attitude toward the trial of death penalty.

In October, the Supreme People's Court issued its Second Five-Year Reform Plan, which says that people's court shall open court session for death sentence cases in second instance.

In cases of second instance, people's court should carefully hear the reasons of appeal or protest and review the evidences in dispute. If necessary, important witnesses of plaintiff or the accused should be asked to attend the court session. The courts should make all out efforts to safeguard the rights of the accused and avoid wrong judgement in death sentence cases, the official said.

Source: Xinhua