美国死刑制度概览

美国自1976年恢复死刑以来，直至2005年年底，全国实际执行死刑的人数才达到1000人，死刑人数从0到1000，美国整整用了29年的时间，其死刑人数之所以比较少，主要得益于其在死刑适用对象、适用程序、救济程序、执行制度等方面比较完善的慎用、少用、限制死刑的法律制度以及比较丰富的理论和实践经验。美国的死刑制度，对于精密构建我国的死刑制度无疑将具有十分重要的理论和现实意义。     

美国死刑适用的最新现状及走向

美国每年死刑执行数量虽排在世界前五位,但减少和控制死刑的适用一直是其主流,特别是近年来废除死刑已成各州追求的目标。美国保留与适用死刑存在的主要问题有:死刑司法诉讼成本过高、种族成为影响死刑适用的明显不公平因素、错案频生、死刑案件量刑程序保障的弱化、各州死刑适用极不平衡。美国废除死刑的动因主要有:国际社会的压力、国内政治因素的影响以及民众对死刑态度的转变。废除死刑后消解候决死刑罪犯的途径有以下三种:一是通过上诉的形式消解死刑;二是寻求死刑的替代性刑罚措施;三是充分利用法定的特赦或大赦的方式消解死刑犯的中止执行,进而变为死刑的终止执行。     

严格限制死刑与严厉惩罚死罪——当代死刑制度的基本特点与未来走向

在目前仍然保留死刑的国家和地区,死刑的适用与执行无不呈现出如下三个特点:第一,适用条件越来越严格,程序越来越繁琐;第二,从审判到执行的时间越来越长,死刑适用的成本不断增大;第三,对死刑犯实行集中关押、单独监禁和严厉管制。这些做法对于保障死刑犯行使辩护和救济权利,保证死刑适用的程序公正和实体正确,防止可能发生的死刑错判无疑具有积极作用。与此同时,这些做法也使得死刑犯受到了监禁与处死的双重重罚,对死刑制度的未来走向将会产生重要的影响。     

死缓适用之实质标准新探

死刑缓期二年执行与死刑立即执行都是死刑的执行方式,二者适用的界线不在罪责层面,而在伦理层面。"不是必须立即执行"这一死刑缓期二年执行的适用原则,是刑事政策导入刑法的结果。由于在强调生命至上、保障人权的背景下,"不是必须立即执行"的原则应当被解读为"被害人宽恕加害人的罪行",因此,被害人宽恕是死刑缓期二年执行适用的实质标准。在加害人应当被判处死刑的前提下,如果存在被害人宽恕的因素,那么可以对加害人适用死刑缓期二年执行;但是,如果加害人犯下了震撼人类良知的罪行,那么即使其得到被害人的宽恕,法官仍得基于普遍正义的考量依法决定对其不适用死刑缓期二年执行。     

对美国死刑案件诉讼程序的考察

美国是西方发达资本主义国家中保留并且适用死刑最多的国家,其对死刑案件设置了严格的诉讼程序,如特殊的死刑诉讼提请批准程序、大陪审团制度、人身保护令制度、死刑执行方式等,试图最大限度地避免出现错判、误判的死刑,保障公民的生命权。这对我国的死刑案件诉讼程序改革具有重要的借鉴意义。     

死刑犯申诉权保障研究——从董伟、邱兴华、贾敬龙三案切入

在"少杀、慎杀"的死刑政策指引下,我国死刑案件的一审、二审和复核程序均取得了重大进步。相比之下,以保障死刑犯申诉权为核心的死刑案件再审程序和执行程序却进展不大。司法实践表明,我国对死刑犯申诉权的程序保障存在重大缺陷,致使一些事实仍然存在疑点或者事实虽无疑义但在是否适用死刑上依然存在争议的案件以执行死刑收场,在一定程度上影响了死刑适用的公正性。为此,需要借鉴域外做法,从完善死刑再审程序、改革死刑执行主体和构建死刑赦免制度等方面,充分保障死刑犯的申诉权。     

严格贯彻宽严相济刑事政策正确把握死刑的适用

保留死刑,严格控制和慎用死刑,是党和国家的刑事政策。为了落实好这一政策,我国刑法在历次修改过程中均保留了死刑,但在死刑执行的方式上规定了死刑立即执行和死刑缓期2年执行两种方式。该种方式的实施,对控制和缩小适用死刑立即执行的范围,对实施依法治国基本方略,构建社会主义和谐社会都具有十分重要的意义。但如何在实践中界定和适用死刑立即执行与死刑缓期2年执行(以下简称死刑与死缓),理论界和司     

2010年美国死刑年终报告

由于适用死刑持续减少,大多数美国公民支持废除死刑.一、死刑执行数量减少了12％——死刑宣判的数量接近历史最低点由于各州之间关于注射死刑、死刑的高成本以及持续提高的支持可替代性刑罚的民意仍然存在分歧,2010年死刑仍旧充满矛盾.相对于2009年,死刑执行的数量下降了12％,自1999年减少了50％多.新增加的死囚数量与2009年持平,是34年来的最低点.     

对死刑复核程序的概念性探讨

当今世界,废除死刑已经成为了国际社会的潮流,据统计,截止2005年,世界上已有79个国家和地区在法律上明确废除所有罪行的死刑,15个国家和地区废除了普通犯罪的死刑,还有23个国家和地区在实践中事实上废除了死刑,但也有78个国家和地区依然保留死刑,我国便是其中之一。由此可见,废除死刑是人类法制文明的必然要求。在我国,虽然死刑并未废除,但是,我国仍然有独具特色的用以限制死刑适用的程序——死刑复核程序。本文将从死刑复核程序的基本概念入手进行探讨。     

死刑与死缓的适用界限

死刑在我国司法实践中的适用,是为了有效地打击极少数罪大恶极的犯罪分子,以维护正常的社会秩序。刑法在执行死刑的方式上规定了死刑立即执行和死刑缓期二年执行两种执行方式,以进一步控制和缩小适用死刑立即执行的范围,体现了我国刑法人道主义精神和惩办与宽大相结合的立法思想。但如何在实践中界定和把握死刑立即执行与死刑缓期二年执行(以下简称死刑与死缓)的界限,不仅在理论上存在着争议,实践中也作法各异。本文拟侧重从实践的角度谈一下死刑与死缓的适用界限。     

Death penalty views in China, Japan and the U.S.: An empirical comparison

Many nations impose the death penalty, yet most of the literature on capital punishment has focused on Western nations, particularly the U.S. China and Japan are two retentionist nations. Based on the data collected in 2005, this study examined the level of death penalty support and views on capital punishment among college students from China, Japan, and the U.S. It was found that Chinese respondents reported the highest level of death penalty support, followed by Japanese and U.S. students. Respondents from China and Japan were more likely to believe in the deterrence value of capital punishment than their U.S. counterparts. Views on retribution differed among the respondents. U.S. students were most likely to feel that innocent people are sentenced to death. In multivariate analyses, deterrence was the strongest correlate of death penalty views among Chinese and Japanese respondents, followed closely by retribution. For both Chinese and Japanese students, the barbarity of government taking the life of a person was the strongest predictor for opposing the death penalty. For U.S. respondents, retribution was the strongest reason for supporting capital punishment and the barbarity of executions was the strongest reason for opposing the death penalty.     

American politics,British policy: whole of life imprisonment and transatlantic influence

Since the abolition of the death penalty, life imprisonment in England and Wales has had a literal meaning with exceptional rarity. Now though, in the rejection of perceived interference by the European Court of Human Rights in domestic sentencing, the politics of whole of life imprisonment have become exposed, specifically, in the widening applicability of the tariff to those who kill police officers or prison guards. Borrowing from the politics of capital punishment in the United States, in both “acting out” after a particular crime, and the prioritising of victim groups, the most severe penalty in England and Wales is increasingly beginning to mirror how the most severe punishment across the Atlantic is used, represented, and politicised.     

Reflections of an octogenarian on criminal law and criminology

The U.S. Supreme Court has declared that capital punishment is not unconstitutional per se, in part because the high degree of public support for the death penalty indicates that the American public does not consider it to be cruel and unusual punishment. According to the Court, the public's desire for retribution is an appropriate basis for determining that the death penalty is an acceptable criminal sanction. This paper examines the degree of public support for the death penalty and the basis for that support. It also explores the differences between retribution as just deserts and retribution as revenge, and concludes by asking whether a public desire for revenge is an appropriate, enlightened basis for our capital punishment policy.     

Can information change public opinion? Another test of the Marshall hypotheses

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall offered his opinion regarding the utility of public opinion polls as a tool for assessing the “evolving standards of decency” regarding capital punishment. His arguments became known as the Marshall hypotheses and spawned a considerable body of empirical testing. The three Marshall hypotheses are: (1) support for capital punishment is inversely associated with knowledge about it, (2) exposure to information about capital punishment produces sentiments in opposition to capital punishment, but (3) exposure to information about capital punishment will have no impact on those who support it for retributive reasons. The results of previous tests of these hypotheses were somewhat mixed but supportive. None of these studies, however, examined the effects of change in knowledge levels with changes, if any, in death penalty attitudes and beliefs as needed for a more complete test of the Marshall hypotheses. The present study addressed this shortcoming. The results provided mixed support for these three hypotheses. That is, death penalty supporters were somewhat less informed than death penalty opponents; exposure to death penalty information and knowledge gains tended to be associated with attitudinal change in a directions suggested by these hypotheses; but, retributivists' attitudes toward and beliefs about capital punishment were not any more resistant to change than were the attitudes and beliefs of non-retributivists.     

The death penalty loses its mind: an interview with Professor James Acker

In April 2009 the American Law Institute (ALI) made the decision to withdraw its support for the a section of the Model Penal Code that had been instrumental in shaping contemporary death penalty legislation. The Institute had created the modern legal and criminal justice administration framework for capital punishment as part of its Model Penal Code in 1962. Professor James Acker, one of the leading scholars on the death penalty in the United States, speaks to the import of this decision while providing some historical context for ALI’s involvement in the matter initially.     

Capital punishment views in China and the United States: a preliminary study among college students

There is a lack of research on attitudes toward capital punishment in China, and there is even less research on cross-national comparisons of capital punishment views. Using data recently collected from college students in the United States and China, this study finds that U.S. and Chinese students have differences in their views on the death penalty and its functions of deterrence, rehabilitation, and incapacitation. This study also reveals that the respondents' perspectives of deterrence, rehabilitation, retribution, and incapacitation all affect their attitudes toward the death penalty in the United States, whereas only the first three views affect attitudes toward capital punishment in China. Furthermore, retribution is the strongest predictor in the United States, whereas deterrence is the strongest predictor in China.     

酌定量刑情节的泛化现象研究

当前,以死刑案件为突出代表的酌定量刑情节在司法实践中出现了泛化现象,影响了司法的公正性。这种泛化主要表现为量刑情节的事实和证据宽泛,量刑事实与犯罪事实关系松散,量刑目的与刑罚的目的产生冲突。就我国司法而言,酌定量刑情节的适用仍应遵循法定性原则,符合酌定量刑情节构成要件要求;酌定量刑事实还应符合刑罚的目的要件,酌定量刑情节与犯罪事实应当存在直接的影响关系;法官收集酌定量刑情节证据行为不得背离其中立地位。规治酌定量刑情节泛化现象必须从程序正义的角度设计酌定量刑情节适用的程序规则。     

死刑废除的国际要求与反思

死刑废除已经是世界性趋势和国际公约的要求,我国刑法学界已在限制死刑上达成了一定的共识,但在死刑废除的论证上还存在诸多争议。德里达对死刑的解构有助于死刑废除。死刑在关系到社会基本公正实现的同时也影响到社会的基本功利的实现,当其不再是为社会公正的基础或主要方面时,便是其被废除之日。     

Explaining Capital Punishment Support in an Abolitionist Country: The Case of the Netherlands

A substantial minority (35%) of the Dutch population is in favor of capital punishment. In this paper, it is argued that in a staunchly abolitionist country such as The Netherlands, the existence and perseverance of such support can be better understood and explained by conceiving of capital punishment support in attitudinal terms as part of a law and order syndrome. Death penalty attitudes are analyzed by means of hierarchic logistic regression analysis. It is shown that support can be modeled quite well, partly in terms of general attitudes to criminal justice, partly in terms of political and sociodemographic parameters. Within the criminal justice attitudes complex, more support is found among those endorsing harsh treatment of offenders, those willing to grant far-reaching powers to justice authorities, those believing that the government is not delivering on the topic of crime fighting, and those who are concerned about the level of crime. Within the political context, more support is enlisted among people who abstain from voting and those who vote at either extreme of the political spectrum as opposed to central parties' supporters. In sociodemographic segments it is the younger and poorly educated who are the strongest supporters of capital punishment. It is suggested that endorsing capital punishment can be better understood as an expressive act, displaying dissatisfaction with judicial and political elites in the country.     

我国引渡外逃经济罪犯的法律障碍和对策——以赖昌星遣返为视角

2006年6月,赖昌星遣返再次遇阻,此案折射出我国引渡外逃经济罪犯存在三大主要法律障碍:引渡条约的缺位;死刑问题;司法公正问题。有鉴于此,我国应采取相应的法律对策:扩展与外国的双边引渡条约关系;废除经济犯罪适用死刑;加强司法改革,树立司法公正的国际形象。