The Rights Practice Briefing Paper Women and death sentences China does not publish disaggregated data on gender and the use of the death penalty. It is unclear how the death penalty impacts on women, the proportion of women executed for drug crimes, or whether the cases involve domestic violence. However, in a study carried out by Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide and China University of Political Science and Law, of 300 cases involving “drug offences, death sentences and women”, the overwhelming majority of women in the sample were sentenced to a suspended death sentence. Women sentenced to death for drug crimes were also predominantly poor, uneducated and from rural backgrounds. They were also more likely to be the primary caregivers of young children.15 Chinese law is clear that women who are pregnant at trial cannot be executed but there is no legal provision against execution of new mothers. Courts do not explicitly consider having children or other dependants a mitigating factor at sentencing. However, an appellate judge commenting on informal guidelines for the review of death sentences explained that, mothers with children under 12 years will often be given a two-year suspended death sentence, even where the offence is very serious.16 According to Chinese legal scholars, in cases of domestic violence in which the victim has murdered the perpetrator, there has been a move away from giving death sentences with immediate execution and more recognition of mitigating factors in recent years. In 2015, the judicial authorities issued the “Opinions on Handling Domestic Violence Criminal Cases in accordance with the Law”. This is China’s first criminal justice guidance document focused on punishing and preventing domestic violence crimes. It clarifies a series of issues in the application of the criminal law including considerations for sentencing, such as the fault of the victim. Although domestic violence cases are predominantly still considered intentional killing, sentencing now ranges from fixed-term imprisonment to a two-year suspended death sentence. Li Yan was sentenced to death with immediate execution in August 2011, after being found guilty of killing her husband Tan Yong in 2010. On appeal, in April 2015, Sichuan Higher People’s Court ruled that she was to be sentenced to two-year suspended death penalty. The court upheld the intentional killing conviction, but recognised the domestic violence she had been subjected to by her husband was a mitigating factor. There had been significant public opposition to the original death sentence. Li had killed her husband by attacking him with an air rifle that she said he had threatened to shoot her with. She said that he had started to physically abuse, including cutting off part of a finger, as well as sexually abuse her, shortly after they had got married in 2009. The initial court had dismissed evidence of the abuse as not being sufficient to prove that she had been a victim of domestic violence. State secrets State secrecy on the numbers of persons facing the death penalty and executed each year in China has an impact on the entire use of capital punishment. The lack of transparency makes it impossible to monitor how the death penalty is being used and the fairness of criminal proceedings. Without data on the numbers executed, their alleged offences and socioeconomic background, people in China cannot participate in an informed debate on the nation’s use of the death penalty. The desire to 15 Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide. “No One Believed Me”: A Global Overview of Women Facing the Death Penalty for Drug Offenses”. October 5, 2021. https://deathpenaltyworldwide.org/publication/no-one-believed-me-aglobal-overview-of-women-facing-the-death-penalty-for-drug-offenses/ 16 Trevaskes, Susan. “From ‘Killing Many’ to ‘Killing Fewer’” in Liang, Bin and Lu, Hong (eds) The Death Penalty in China: Policy, Practice and Reform, Columbia University Press, 2016. 6