Title: Reference Materials: China’s Average “Death Row” Prisoner Waits 2 Months for Execution
Headings: China’s Average “Death Row” Prisoner Waits 2 Months for Execution
Wednesday, April 27, 2016
China’s Average “Death Row” Prisoner Waits 2 Months for Execution
Supreme People’s Court Death Penalty Review Decisions, Apr 2011- Nov 2015

Content: 1) there is evidence of a possible error in the original judgment; 2) the person sentenced to death provides evidence of other crimes or performs other acts of major meritorious service that could result in leniency; or 3) the person sentenced to death is discovered to be pregnant. The speed with which execution is carried out may be associated with certain individuals or crimes. For example, all 16 Uyghurs in the sample had their executions for terrorist activity carried out between five and nine days after the SPC approved their sentences. This means that warrants for execution had to have been issued more or less simultaneously with the court’s decision to approve capital punishment. The wait was also very brief for Xu Maiyong (eight days) and Liu Han (13 days). Xu was the former vice-mayor of Hangzhou who was executed for corruption in 2011. Liu was a politically connected business figure executed in 2015 for allegedly leading an organized crime syndicate in Sichuan. In fact, the timing of executions may be tied to the social and political value of their publicity.