China's courts will hire 1,900 more staff for open court trials
for second instance death sentence cases, according to a source
with the Supreme People's Court (SPC).
"Over the past year, the SPC has been recruiting personnel for
local courts where case numbers are high," the unnamed SPC official
told an inspection team of the National People's Congress, the
parliament, in a working report.
According to China's Criminal Procedural Law, since July 2006,
open court sessions are obligatory when a second instance case is
defended by a people's procuratorate.
Previously, most appeal cases -- even death penalty cases --
were not been heard in open court because of a lack of qualified
personnel.
A local court source confirmed that understaffing often made it
impossible to try death penalty cases in open court sessions.
Since 2005, Chinese media have exposed several errors of
judgment in death sentence cases and have criticized courts for a
lack of caution.
If second instance trials are not heard openly, the public do
not feel convinced -- the process is not transparent, the rights
and interests of the accused are not fully protected, and judicial
errors could occur," said the source, adding that the second line
of defense is vital in correcting mistakes in original verdicts and
preventing injustices.
Last year, about 25,000 new staff were added to Chinese courts
to beef up local courts.
Statistics show that last year 889,042 people were convicted by
courts at all levels across the country, and 153,724 people
received sentences longer than five years, including life
imprisonment and death penalty.
Figures from the Beijing No. 1 and No. 2 intermediate people's
courts indicate that in the first five months of 2007 the number of
death sentences dropped 10 percent from last year.
(Xinhua News Agency June 23, 2007)