Capital punishment on the decline
5 September 2007
China is recorded its fewest death sentences in more than a decade last year after the Supreme People's Court (SPC) was designated the only body to approve capital punishment in January, Reuters reported, citing state media. SPC Vice President Jiang Xingchang said death sentences in the first half of this year decreased countrywide year-on-year, though he did not provide figures. Recent media reports have cast doubt on death-penalty cases in 1995 and 2005 of two men believed by some to have been wrongfully executed.