---
title: 'China Reports Fewest Death Sentences in a Decade'
description: 'China reported that the number of people sentenced to death in 2006 was the lowest in nearly a decade, and officials project that this trend will continue…'
canonical: 'https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/china-reports-fewest-death-sentences-in-a-decade'
section: news
date: '2007-09-05T16:13:47-04:00'
updated: '2025-03-14T14:22:59-04:00'
source: 'Death Penalty Information Center'
---

China reported that the number of people sentenced to death in 2006 was the lowest in nearly a decade, and officials project that this trend will continue in 2007. According to a state media report, during the first five months of 2007, the number of death sentences handed out in cases of first instance dropped approximately 10% from the same time in 2006. The decline stems from a key legal reform requiring that all death sentences be approved by the Supreme People's Court, a change made in response to widespread concerns about wrongful convictions.

"Among the death penalty cases the Supreme People's Court reviewed from January to July, a relatively large proportion was not given approval. That is to say, executions would have been authorised (by provincial courts) if the final review power had not been taken back \[by the Supreme Court\]," Jiang Xingchang, vice president of the top court, told Outlook Weekly magazine.

(Reuters, September 3, 2007 and The Jurist, September 3, 2007). See [International Death Penalty](/death-penalty-international-perspective?did=127&scid=30) and [Innocence](/innocence-and-death-penalty?did=412&scid=6). The decline in death sentences in China mirrors a similar trend in the U.S. See DPIC's [**2006 Year End Report**](https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/documents/reports/year-end/2006YearEnd.pdf).