Imposition of the Death Penalty and its Impact in China_ The Rights Practice_ April 2022 14. The death penalty not only has an impact on the mental health of family members but poor families are also disproportionately impacted if the breadwinner of the family is executed.9 Many families of defendants struggle to pay lawyers’ fees and rely on substandard legal representation. Indigent defendants’ family members are also less able to pay compensation to a victim’s family as a method to reduce sentencing. 15. There is little available data on the relationship between poverty and the death penalty in China but Amnesty International has found that in analysis of available incomplete data that poor, less educated and ethnic minorities were disproportionately represented among death penalty cases.10 16. China does not publish disaggregated data on gender and the use of the death penalty. However, in a small study of 300 cases involving “drug offenses, death sentences and women”, the women sentenced to death, including two-year suspended death penalty, for drug crimes were predominantly poor, uneducated and from rural backgrounds.11 They were also more likely to be the primary caregivers of children, under the age of 18 years, which can significantly impact on the child’s life. 3) Impact of the death penalty on other individuals, including prison officers, executioners, and medical practitioners involved in the execution. 17. Secrecy surrounds the application of the death penalty in China including exactly how executions are carried out and the impact on those involved. However, from interviews with individuals involved in executions in China it is clear that their mental health had been impacted and they had experienced trauma. 18. For example, one armed guard involved in two executions by shooting said that afterwards he suffered from nightmares in which the face of the executed man appeared. He said he had been a young man at the time and had not dared to refuse to carry out the task assigned by his superiors. He said in the years following the executions he felt tortured by fear, guilt and nightmares.12 19. Procurators (prosecutors) and judges must witness executions and eyewitnesses have said that they have been distressed by what they have seen in the use of the lethal injection, including the belief that the person was not dead at the time it was declared. 20. One judge in Chinese criminal cases, who has sentenced many individuals to death, said she regrets becoming a criminal judge. She used to believe that heavy sentences punish criminals and act as a deterrence as well as alleviating some of the suffering of the victims’ families. However, after many years she now feels that she has seen much more family separation, fear and confusion and wants to leave this kind of work.13 4) Information provided to individuals on death row, their families, and legal representatives in the lead-up to executions (e.g., date of execution, visits prior to the execution date, etc.) 21. In China, individuals sentenced to death have the right to be informed of their imminent execution and are allowed to meet close relatives. The Supreme People’s Court (SPC) of the PRC issued the Several Provisions of the SPC The Rights Practice. “Life and Death: Access to Justice for the Poor in Death Penalty Cases”. December 2017. https://www.rightspractice.org/Handlers/Download.ashx?IDMF=4c39c7ea-7761-4744-a6ad-cee845bfd81a 10 Amnesty International. China’s Deadly Secrets. (2017) ASA 17/5849/2017. p.7 https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/asa17/5849/2017/en/ 11 Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide. “No One Believed Me”: A Global Overview of Women Facing the Death Penalty for Drug Offenses”. 5 October 2021. https://deathpenaltyworldwide.org/publication/no-one-believed-me-a-global-overview-of-women-facing-thedeath-penalty-for-drug-offenses/ 12 Interview record, 2019, please contact The Rights Practice for more information. 13 Interview record, 2019, please contact The Rights Practice for more information. 9 4