Suggested change sparks legal debate

The proposal to abolish the death penalty for the crime of coercing women into prostitution aroused controversy when the issue was discussed at a bimonthly session of the National People's Congress, China's top legislative body.

According to some of the legal experts at the meeting, the damage that results from forcing people into prostitution is not as severe as that caused by some other violent offenses, such as murder or intentional injury, and they felt it would be right to abolish the death penalty for coercion.

Zhao Bingzhi, a professor of criminal law research at Beijing Normal University, said the move to reduce the number of crimes subject to capital punishment is intended to protect human rights, and is one of the aims of China's ongoing reform of the judicial system.

Lawmakers have already abolished the death penalty for so-called economic crimes, and the latest proposal may accelerate the process whereby the punishment is abolished completely, Zhao said.

However, Xu Zhenchao, a member of the nation's top legislature, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, countered the argument. He said the threat of coercion would continue to hang over women if the death penalty isn't retained.

Tang Shili, another NPC member, echoed Xu's sentiments, saying that the ways in which offenders force women into prostitution are almost always cruel and thus constitute abuse, so the crime should still be subject to the most-severe punishment the law can provide.

In September, the Hunan Provincial High People's Court overturned death sentences handed down to two men, Zhou Junhui and Qin Xing, who had been convicted of rape, organizing prostitution and forcing women into prostitution.

The court ruled that the men's crimes didn't warrant the death penalty, and commuted their sentences to life imprisonment.

Li Jianming, a professor of law at Nanjing Normal University, accepted that freed from the threat of execution, some offenders would continue to coerce women, but said many of them pressured their victims in non-violent ways, and the harsh punishment would be inapproriate.

He said that even if the penalty were to be abolished for coercion, offenders who killed or physically harmed their victims could be charged with homicide or causing intentional injury, both of which still carry the threat of capital punishment.

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