Parties in the Procedures of Death Sentence Review and Execution there was no legal requirement for the lawyer to be informed of the decision or the order to carry out the death penalty. However, these provisions state that the court entrusted to pronounce the judgment should inform legal counsel within five days of the decision (see Chapter 7 for a discussion of the circumstances in which the death sentence is carried out). Pardon and Commutation The Chinese Constitution confers power on the President to order special pardons (Art.80). Although, in theory, this provides the possibility of an amnesty for prisoners facing the death penalty, in practice the measure has not been used for such cases. For the first time in 40 years, President Xi Jinping used this power, in 2015, to grant a special pardon to over 30,000 people, 95% of whom were under 18 years at the time of the offence and either sentenced to fewer than three years in prison or had not been convicted of a serious crime and had less than one year left of their sentence. Other beneficiaries were veterans and elderly prisoners with disabilities.39 There is no right to seek a pardon as called for in Safeguard Seven. Chinese law provides for the court to commute a two-year suspended death sentence to life imprisonment or a fixed term sentence after two years. There is no similar right for a prisoner facing immediate execution to apply for the sentence to be commuted. Trial Supervision Procedures In principle, China’s trial supervision procedures provide for an additional appeals procedure. The relevant legislation is found in Chapter V of the 2018 Criminal Procedure Law. The law allows for parties or their lawyers to appeal against a court judgement on grounds of either new evidence or problems with application of the law. The appeal is considered by the adjudication committee which may order a new trial. Enforcement of the original judgement is not automatically suspended during consideration of the appeal or the retrial. The trial supervision procedures make no reference to death penalty cases. With executions supposed to take place within seven days of the SPC authorisation, the initiation of trial supervision procedures is unlikely. Chinese observers note that trial supervision procedures are very rarely invoked and are difficult for the SPC to enforce. The case of Nie Shubin, executed in 1995 for rape and murder, had been submitted to Hebei Higher Court to review after another man had confessed to the murder some 10 years later. For the next nine years Hebei Higher Court, which had originally approved the death sentence, made little progress despite petitioning by Nie’s family. Eventually, the SPC felt compelled to instruct Shandong Higher Court to review the case. The Shandong Higher Court did not find sufficient evidence to support the conviction of Nie and recommended the SPC review the case. The 39 Duihua. ‘China: Juveniles Biggest Winners in 2015 Special Pardon. 29 January, 206. https://www.duihuahrjournal.org/2016/01/china-juveniles-biggest-winners-in-2015.html 49