Time.

com
Of all the criminal cases in China, those involving corrupt officials sentenced to death
arouse the greatest interest. The morbid examples abound: from the public cheering for the
recent death sentences for the two deputy mayors of Suzhou and Hangzhou to the executions
of the head of the State Food and Drug Administration, of the Secretary of Justice of
ChongqingCity, and of the vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's
Congress.
China is the global leader for the number of corrupt officials who are sentenced to
death, and actually executed each year. But, judging by the seemingly endless "public
demand" for this kind of punishment and the surging popularanger, it would seem that there is
actually not enough of it. While so many people are "beheaded," executives at all levels are
still determined to brave death by trying to make the most of corruption. So one cannot help
but wonder, are there too many or too few executions in China? What else should be taken
into account when considering the fate of corrupt officials apart from the law, international
human rights standards, and the public opinion?.
Strictly speaking, China has no "justice , "relying only on "political law" when it comes
down to dealing with corrupt officials. The so-called "double regulation" (the Communist
Party's special investigative procedure in which officials are asked to respond to allegations of
corruption or other violations) means that sentences are delivered under the guidance of the
Chinese Communist Party's discipline inspection departments, and that the code of criminal
procedure is only a reference, just as the prosecution and the trial are just a semblance of
justice.
It is almost unheard of for Chinese judges dealing with corruption cases to make
independent judgments by relying solelyon the judicial procedure, evidence submitted, and
the law. Deciding whether to indict a corrupt official, and how to deal with him, is to a great
extent not the result of an enactment of the law, but rather the outcome of a political power
struggle.
When corrupt officials confess their crimes in court, they most often say that they had
lowered their personal standards, and strayed away from their thinking and principles learned
during their education. Sometimes they may add that they had a poor understanding of the
law. A country that regards materialism as a model is in fact floating on idealism. The most
important factors lying at the root of corruption have never actually been discussed, neither in
the media, nor elsewhere.
If political education is the answer to rampant corruption, then all the propaganda
courses we are constantly exposed to would have solved the problem by now. It is thus
obvious that the reason for corruption lies else where, in the fact that there isn't enough
control and supervision over public power, and in the lack of democratic elections and
freedom of the press.
The current level of corruption in China is systematic and widespread. It is so
entrenched that honest officials are now part of a minority that risks being left behind. It is a
system where corruption is the rule rather than the exception, and it is thus not an
exaggeration to say that transparent officials are victims in acountry that lacks democracy,
supervision, and has a weak judicialsystem. This means that, no matter how great the anger of
the public, it will not be sufficient to put a stop to corruption.
If the anger of the public is understandable, it doesn't mean that the death penalty is the
right remedy for the problem. On the contrary, the reasons for abolishing the death penalty are
numerous. One of them would be that, like most crimes, corruption has a strongsocial
dimension. Criminals are neverborn evil, and, in the case of corruption, it is quite clear that
social factors play an important role. Corrupt people are of course despicable, but society has
to accept a certain amount of responsibility too.

Asiaone.com
Death penalty idea forcorruption draws criticism:China
By Xu Pingting

China Daily/Asia News Network

Wednesday, Mar 14, 2012
If corruption of over 500,000 (S$99,426) yuanis punishable by death, no official will dare to
do that anymore, said Zhao Runtian, a deputy to the National People's Congress, on Monday.
His speech draws heated comments online.
The light punishment against corruption may be encouraging graft, added Zhao, who is also
secretary of the Heze Municipal Committee of the CPC in Shandong province.
Zhou Yuhua, another deputy to the NPC and chief justice of Shandong Higher People's Court,
said corrupt officials don't consider how many years of jail time they will get, because they
believe that they won't get caught.
Many Internet users also disagreed with Zhao's views, through a micro blog service Sina
Weibo.
"Have you ever read the history of the Ming Dynasty? Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang killed many
corrupt officials, only to bring little effect. The key to corruption control lies in culture rather
than punishment," one wrote.
"The key is not the standard of corruption, but supervising system. If the supervising system
remains the same, corruption will never bee radicated," wrote another.
"It may be an effective way, but does not get to the root of the problem. I believe transparency
of power is the key. We should create conditions for citizens to over see the government to
make it function in sunshine," wrote another user.
Yahoo answer
Many corrupt persons are dangerous than terrorists. At number of times we have seen the
terrorists succeeded in their activities by taking the help of corrupt machinery. Therefore,
corrupt persons must be punished severely and even capital punishment should be awarded, if
they have helped terrorists. Actually, the most important point is not the nature of punishment
but implementation of punishment. In India, corrupt persons are escaping of punishment as
the judicial machinery is also corrupt. Today, the corrupt persons are not being awarded the
punishment which has been provided. Therefore, what shall be the use even if law provides
capital punishment, if that provision remains only on paper? Personally I think instead of
giving capital punishment, the whole property of corrupt persons should be forfeited and they
should be sent behind bar for the rest of their lives.

Capital punishment for corruption: How desirable?

Written by Bukunmi OgunsolaWednesday, 24 November 2010
Capital punishment or death penalty is as old as society itself. It involves beheading,
stoning, crucifixion, drowning or the burying alive of criminal offenders. In modern times, it
takes the form of shooting in private or public glare, electrocution, hanging, use of poison gas,
injection of lethal substances, etc.
In the olden days and even presently in some countries, capital punishment was/is not
applied solely for the most serious crimes.
Death was/is the repercussion for a variety of minor offences. For instance, Libya
considers the importation of alcohol and trading in foreign currencies as capital crimes.
The supporters of capital punishment say that it will ensure the safety of other citizens
and that the ultimate penalty of death is necessary for the punishment of terrible people
who commit terrible crimes because it provides the most complete retribution and
condemnation. They also believe that it could serve as an effective deterrent to the
potential criminals because death is feared than the restriction of liberty.Many countries
regularly carry out capital punishment of offenders.

In America, there is a complex fusion of a legal system that authorises execution of

criminal offenders and that which is characterised by the utmost respect for individual
rights.
In Asian countries, particularly China, South Korea and Islamic nations, capital
punishment is a routine, while the majority of countries in Africa practice capital
punishment.
Before the World War II, all the major countries in Western Europe carried out this form
of punishment.
According to the Amnesty International, a total of 1,813 prisoners were executed in 31
countries in 1999 while China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and
the United States carried out 85 per cent of all these killings.
Over the years, however, there have been debates over the desirability or otherwise of
this form of punishment, with opponents describing it as brutal and dehumanising.
Opponents argue that life imprisonment could serve as an effective punishment and
detterent to others and that it has been proved that capital punishment has no direct
correlation with the elimination of crime.
The issue had become so controversial that by the 1990s, the nations of the world had
become almost equally divided with respect to the death penalty issue.
Shortly after, over 70 countries abolished capital punishment while another 13 countries
applied the death penalty only for exceptional crimes like crimes under military law and
crimes committed in exceptional circumstances, such as during wartime.
Presently, however, of all developed nations, only the US and Japan still retain the death
penalty, while the practice is prevalent in underdeveloped nations.
In Nigeria, this form of punishment appears to have been abolished with the exit of
military governance.
But the issue has, again, assumed the front burner of national disourse in view of the
monster called corruption that is gradually but steadily eating away the fabric of the nation.
In Nigeria, those who aspire to run the machinery of government do so essentially for
the purpose of self-aggrandisemest and not because they want to serve the people or the
nation.
Politicians and public office holders have cornered the common wealth for themselves
and their generations yet unborn, leaving the over 150 million populace to wallow in abject
and debilitating poverty.
The ultimate effect of this is that Nigerians are dying because they cannot eat well and
cannot afford good health.They are exposed to all sorts of waterborne and airborne diseases
because there is no good housing and potable water. They have become generally
disenchanted, disillusioned and frustrated, and may have seen no reason to continue to live,
all because some selfish public officials have stolen the wealth of their nation.
And despite all efforts by certain governments to eliminate or, at least, eradicate
corruption among public office holders, it appears to be gaining ground.
The question then arises, if a few people have chosen to sentence the people to death
by their greed and avarice, why should they themselves be spared? Should corrupt public
office holders be subjected to capital punishment?This was the poser by the Nigerian
Tribune to a cross section of Nigerians.
Mr J.Ebri said he does not support death penalty for corrupt politicians. He argued that
corrupt enrichment is disobedience to civil law and not a capital crime. Capital punishment,
he observed, is for capital crime like murder.
He reiterated:Check all the statute books. Capital punishment is only meant for capital
crime. I suggest that corrupt politicians should be clamped into jail. And by the time they
come out, they would be too old to contest another election.
I learnt that one former governor who was removed by the court after spendig three
years in the saddle as governor says he will no longer contest the governorship race. My
question is, why would he want to contest after he had stolen enough money. This kind of
people should be clamped into jail along with all his cohorts Ebri opined.

Mr Niyi Ogunjemilua also opposed capital punishment as a form of punishment for

corrupt officials. He suggested that instead, such people should be made to forfeit all that
they have - money, assets, etc. while their names should also be written in the nations black
book.
Said he Capital punishment is not the solution. Government should take over everything
that belongs to the corrupt politician -- whether acquired legitimately or not. His name and
those of his children and the extended family should also be written in the nations black
book with the implication that none of them would be allowed to vote or be voted for. They
would also be denied appointment whether in the public or private sector for the rest of their
lives. I believe if this is done, the culprits children would by themselves kill their father.
Ogunjemilua further argued that capital punishment has not served as an effective
deterrent to capital crimes adding, It is no longer news that cases of pick pocket are usually
recorded in places where mass public executions for theft and other crimes are carried out.
So, capital punishment is not the appropriate way of dealing with corrupt politicians.
Mrs R. Sanni is, however, of a different opinion.I support capital punishment. This is
the only way to prevent the politicians from sentencing other Nigerians to death by taking
away what belongs to all of us. Ghana did it and today they are the better for it. I believe if
theres anything more than capital punishment, these politicians deserve it.
Nigerian politicians steal our money and invest same in foreign countries by building
business empires and when they eventually die, these empires are taken over by the host
countries, while millions of Nigerian graduates roam about the streets begging for alms or
taking to armed robbery because they cannot find jobs to do. When these graduate armed
robbers kill fellow citizens while trying to rob them, who bears the blame? Is it not the
politicians? Corrupt politicians do not deserve our mercy
We would be jumping the gun if we advocate capital punishment. We are deviating
from the real issue and we might not win at the endCharles Oni reasoned adding that,
What we should be talking about is appropriate punishment. The punishment should tally
with the offence committed.
Akinloye Babatunde opined that capital punishment is a sin. There are other ways of
handling the issue of corruption among public office holders , he said highlighting such
alternative ways as: Freezing of account, impounding properties and placing a ban that
would prevent such persons and their families from holding public offices in future.
Inasmuch as we cannot give life, according to Mr. Success, we have no justification to
take life. He noted that apart from the punishment meted out to criminals, theres also the
law of karma which would most certainly catch up with them.
Adebayo Lana said: I am a Christian and there are some crimes for which the Bible
prescribes capital punishment. No matter how wise human laws pretend to be, they cannot
be wiser than the Bible. Corruption is worst than armed robbery and anybody found guilty
must be hanged. Corruption mortgages the future of our children. Some people blame God
for their poor material conditions instead of seeing it as a result of the greed of certain
people. If public office holders are found guilty of corruption, they should be hanged or
made to face firing squad. However, government should be generous enough to make them
choose either to die by hanging or firing squad. Corruption is responsible for our poor social
infrastructure and national economic stagnation.Nigeria is 50 years yet, it has nothing to
show for it.
Capital punishment might be considered extreme because in the real sense of it, the
people who are supposed to make the law are the law breakers rather, I would support an
independent body like Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) who would
prosecute offenders and freeze their assets thereby making them irrelevant to the society,
opined Robinson Osagie.
Speaking on the issue, a sociologist, Dr Akeem Akinwale, of the Sociology Department
of the University of Ibadan averred that capital punishment negates the principal purpose of
punishment which is basically about reforming the criminal. He argued that a criminal after
undergoing rehabilitation has the chance of contrubuting positively to the development of
the society while a total condemnation will not give such a person the opportunity to do so.

The question was asked: Can someone who is advanced in age be made to change his
ways? The don replied:Of couse yes. Human beings learn until death. There is no end to
learning. Human beings are capable of change.Even professors still learn. All humans are
capable of change.
Dr Akinwale disclosed that it has been proved that capital punishment does not serve as a
deterrent to crime but rather it leads to increased criminality.
The don however, lamented the dehumanising state of our prisons, where reformation of
criminals are supposed to take place but of which the reverse is the case. Our prisons
should be reformative.Prison officials should be able to work on the psyche of criminals to
make them changed persons. But the prison condition is so dehumanising such that
criminals leave the place worse than they went in. the don surmised and blamed the
nations faulty social structure for this shortcoming.

Death Penalty: A must need to fight corruption in Nigeria

There is a great need to consider the issue of death penalty to be introduced into the
Nigerian system if that is what will assist in the fight against corruption. Corruption is
rampant especially among the ruling elite who are usually given a slap on the wrist when
caught with any case of corruption. This trend should stop.
To be sincere, the anti- graft war requires stronger bite. If political office holders know
that they may be given capital punishment if found to be corrupt, I am very sure all of them
will begin to tread a path of honor. Recently in Beijing , China , Wen Qiang, a former head of
the judiciary in the southwestern Chongquing region was executed after a court found him
guilty of corruption. So, government should empower our courts and the anti- graft agencies
by introducing death penalty in our laws to punish hardened criminals looting our resources.
Recently, one of the fighters of corruption, Mrs. Farida Waziri, Chairman of the Economic
and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) who has always demonstrated zeal when it comes
to fighting corruption in Nigeria , called for the advocate of stiffer penalty in curbing
corruption. For instance, she is campaigning for death penalty for corrupt officials, to serve
as antidote against corruption. In a statement she made at a forum recently, Waziri stated that
"whatever action that it will take for Nigeria to move and make progress against corruption,
let us do it, even if it is death penalty. Believe me that is the only way to eradicate corruption
in Nigeria . When you execute 20 people, it will serve as a deterrent to others."
I am pleading with the President, and the people of Nigeria to help this nation move
forward. Let us join hands together to ensure that corrupt ones in our midst are punished with
death penalty. This is surely the best way to ensure sanity and transparency.

Judge: Indonesia needs death penalty for graft

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
LAST UPDATED: 10/16/2010 13:51

Chief justice in Jakarta says Southeast Asian country should emulate Chinese practice
of executing officials convicted of corruption as deterrent.
JAKARTA, Indonesia Indonesia needs to follow China's example and sentence
officials convicted of corruption to death in order to stamp out massive graft in the
country, a top judge said Saturday.
Indonesia's current sentences for corruption are too soft and do nothing to deter
corrupt officials, said Mohammad Mahfud, the chief justice of the Constitutional
Court.

Officials "are sentenced to only three to four year in jail, which is lighter than
sentences given to petty criminals," Mahfud said.
He advocated the use of a provision in Indonesia's Anti-Corruption Law that allows
judges to sentence convicts to death. It has never been used.
"In China, which carries out the death sentence for those convicted of corruption
charges, there is a deterrent effect," he said. "If death sentences were used in
Indonesia for corruption, it would reduce the cases."
China is trying to reduce the number of crimes that get the death penalty, but a
legislator last month said China's lawmakers have never considered dropping the
death penalty for corruption. People convicted of corruption should be subject to
harsh penalties, lawmaker Chen Sixi said in an online chat with citizens, according to
the People's Daily newspaper.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has been widely credited for the
success of an anti-corruption campaign that started after he took office in 2004.
Scores of corrupt politicians, entrepreneurs and law enforcement officials have been
tried and convicted, including the father-in-law of one of the Yudhoyono's sons.
According to advocacy group Transparency International's corruption index,
Indonesia ranks 111th out of 180 countries.