China's local prosecutors were encouraged by the country's top procuratorate on Monday to appeal court verdicts when they did not deliver a death sentence to criminals who committed capital crimes.

The Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) publicized a fifth set of guidelines clarifying appealing standards for local procuratorates on Monday.

The guidelines are aimed at curbing local prosecutors' tendency to pay more attention to public prosecution than to appealing improper court verdicts, a tendency that manifests itself in local prosecutors only appealing light sentences, the Legal Daily reported Tuesday.

In one of the three cases cited in the guidelines, the suspect was sentenced to death after the local prosecutors appealed a death sentence with reprieve imposed in the first trial, arguing that the suspect was a repeat criminal offender.

As debate on capital punishment heated up across China, in 2007 the Supreme People's Court claimed the right to review all death penalties handed down by lower courts. This move indicates that China is not currently considering an abolition of the death penalty, Hong Daode, a criminal procedure law professor at the China University of Political Science and Law, told the Global Times.

The encouragement by the top procuratorate was partly due to local courts' insufficient understanding of prudent judgment and standards for the death penalty, Hong said.

A criminal can only receive harsher sentences if prosecutors appealed a verdict in the belief that it was lighter than the law demanded, Hong said.

"There is a principle that courts shall not give heavier punishment if it is the accused that filed an appeal," Hong said.

But the move also reflects serious conflicts between local procuratorates and courts, since courts have increasingly handed down sentences that do not correspond with charges filed by prosecutors, Mo Shaoping, an experienced criminal defense lawyer, told the Global Times.

Mo said he disapproved of the new guidelines, as procuratorates that have already held a strong position during trial should not have their role strengthened further.

Courts support prosecutors' accusations in a majority of cases, although recent years have seen a slight increase in the number of cases in which courts dismissed charges, Mo said.

However, Mo admitted that some local procuratorates had no choice but to appeal, since local courts may in some cases be forced by some outside power to make an unfair judgment.