towards lighter sentences for such cases in recent years. Although such cases are, in the majority, still considered as intentional killing, sentencing now ranges from fixed-term imprisonment to a two-year suspension of the death penalty. According to Chinese legal scholars, in such cases the death penalty with immediate execution is no longer given and life sentences are rare. 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. Drug-Related Offences Drug-related offences, along with intentional killing, account for a large proportion of death sentences in China. Drug crimes are considered to be a threat to social stability and China has continued to promote policies that encourage harsher punishments for this category of offences. The Criminal Law, article 347 states that the death penalty is applicable to drug smuggling, selling, transporting and manufacturing. Harsh sentences, including the death penalty, may be imposed according to the amount of drugs involved (1000 or more grams of opium, or 50 or more grams of heroin or methamphetamine), being a “ringleader of gangs”, using firearms, violently resisting inspection, detention or arrest, and being involved in international drug trafficking. According to the law there are two main factors which make a death sentence more likely to be given for drug offences. One is the quantity of the drugs involved. This is the main factor for determining the severity of the offence and whether it meets the threshold for imposing a death sentence. The purity of the drug is not taken into account and all substances are considered to be the same regardless of potential harm caused (CL17. Art.357). For example, “drugs” in the law refers to opium, heroin, methamphetamine (ice), morphine, marijuana, cocaine, and other anaesthetics that are regulated by the state and can cause addiction. The other aggravating factor is that penalties are computed cumulatively and the law states that heavier punishments will be given if a person already punished for smuggling, trafficking in, transporting, manufacturing or illegally possessing drugs reoffends. So death sentences are more likely to be imposed for recidivists. Some lawyers and legal experts observe that judges in recent years have increasingly used their discretion to impose death sentences only for crimes involving very high quantities of drugs. The amount of drugs that attracts the death penalty also varies across different provinces. Reports of death sentences and executions being imposed for drug-related offences significantly increase around the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking on 26 June each year. According to 17