Abolishing the death penalty for corruption crimes: Still debated

One of the important points in the draft Penal Code (amended) that has received a lot of public attention is the provision to abolish the death penalty for 7 crimes.

Discussing this bill at the conference of full-time National Assembly deputies, many deputies suggested that it should be considered more carefully.

National Assembly deputies have many different opinions about the regulation to limit the death penalty.

Fear of the law losing its deterrent power

The report of the National Assembly Standing Committee at the conference stated that after many discussions to solicit opinions, up to now, the regulation limiting the death penalty in the draft Penal Code (amended) still has 3 different opinions and viewpoints. The first group of opinions completely agrees. The second group of opinions proposes not to abolish the death penalty for the following crimes: crimes against humanity, sabotage of peace, war crimes; illegal transportation of narcotics; corruption (embezzlement, bribery); destruction of important works and means of national security; robbery; surrender to the enemy; disobeying orders; production and trade of counterfeit food and foodstuffs. The third group of opinions proposes to abolish the death penalty for other crimes, especially embezzlement, bribery, economic crimes...

Deputy Tran Ngoc Vinh (Deputy Head of the Hai Phong City National Assembly Delegation) commented that the removal of 7 crimes punishable by death in the Penal Code this time is a law-making perspective following the progressive trend of the world, but it needs to be carefully studied, some crimes still need to retain the death penalty to ensure the strictness of the law. Similarly, some other delegates were concerned that in the current situation of complex and increasingly violent crimes, especially corruption crimes that are causing public concern, the removal of the death penalty for many types of crimes as in the draft law could reduce the deterrent effect of the law, making the crime situation even more complicated.

Some delegates emphasized that if the death penalty is abolished for crimes in the group of corruption crimes, not only will it not meet the people's wishes and aspirations, it will also be difficult to meet the requirements of the fight against corruption. Delegate Nguyen Ba Thuyen (Deputy Head of the National Assembly Delegation of Lam Dong Province) said that abolishing the death penalty for 7/22 crimes is "a bit much", and it is necessary to consider retaining some crimes that still carry the death penalty to increase deterrence, and gradually reduce them depending on the future crime situation.

Punishment is not the ultimate goal

Disagreeing with the above views, Deputy Tran Van Do (An Giang delegation - former Deputy Chief Justice of the Supreme People's Court) analyzed that through research to date, there has been no work showing that applying the death penalty reduces crime. "If that were really the case, I would immediately agree with the need to strictly regulate the death penalty, but from practical work and through research in this field, I see that the deterrent effect of the death penalty is not much.

During the trial, we asked the defendant, “Do you think this crime is punishable by death?”, the defendant replied, “I committed the crime when I was angry and didn’t think about the punishment.” When we asked the defendant who trafficked drugs a similar question, the defendant said, “If you traffic in drugs, 100 grams is punishable by death, 100 kilograms is punishable by death, it’s the same.” Thus, sometimes the death penalty itself puts criminals in a more dangerous position, even with no way back, for example, if a criminal sentenced to death escapes, he will continue to commit crimes because he will be sentenced to death anyway if he is caught,” Deputy Tran Van Do cited.

According to the opinion of Deputy Tran Van Do, the more crimes that are subject to the death penalty compared to current regulations are eliminated, the better, the more it demonstrates humanity because the ultimate goal of criminal proceedings or any form of proceedings is not punishment but education for criminals to return to the path of honesty and crime prevention. “Especially with economic crimes, corruption, embezzlement, up to now, very few have been handled, almost no one has been sentenced to death, so even if there is a regulation on the death penalty, it will not be effective.

Meanwhile, the recovery of corrupt assets after conviction is very little. I think focusing on recovering and recovering corrupt assets, giving criminals the opportunity to return the embezzled money is much better than sentencing them to death," the former Chief Justice of the Supreme People's Court added.

Similarly, Deputy Truong Minh Hoang, Deputy Head of the National Assembly Delegation of Ca Mau Province, said that the Criminal Code must be strict, but "if possible, the more the death penalty is reduced for many types of crimes, the better, the more humane. If the death penalty for a person can affect many individuals who have relationships and are related to that person, it can be counterproductive," this delegate analyzed.

According to Capital Security