Extended Reprieve: The Unabridged History of Suspended Execution in China

• In Event: Reassessing Penal Severity, Capital Punishment and White-Collar Crime in China

Abstract

China executes more people than the rest of the world combined. But this startling fact easily overshadows an equally astounding figure: the number of people that China does not kill. Suspended execution is a nominal death sentence that is presumptively converted into a custodial term of imprisonment. The expanded use of this sentence is credited as a major factor in the reduction of immediate—or actual—executions in China over the last decade. What accounts for the persistence and prevalence of this sentence? This paper challenges the prevailing claim that suspended execution originated under Mao, and traces the shifting history of suspended execution back to the Qing dynasty (1644-1912) case review system.

Author

• Tobias Smith, University of California, Berkeley