NCJ Number
222707
Journal
Punishment & Society Volume: 10 Issue: 2 Dated: April 2008 Pages: 117-136
Date Published
April 2008
Length
20 pages
Annotation
This study examined the role played by Mao Zedong in the development of the Chinese communist legal system in general and in the Chinese practice of the death penalty under Mao in particular.
Abstract
Mao was a fervent advocate of capital punishment, believing it to be a deterrent to dangerous behavior when implemented on a large scale. This belief was molded by the Marxist concept of class struggle and the punitive practices of Hunan peasants. In the late 1940s, Mao wrote that, "It is absolutely necessary and legitimate to sentence to death by the People's Court and the democratic government criminals who actively and grievously oppose the People's Democratic Revolution and commit acts of sabotage against agrarian reform." Mao thus viewed the death penalty as a political and utilitarian tool for ensuring the protection and advancement of the Marxist revolution against its domestic enemies. He did not view the death penalty within the context of a penal/judicial philosophy. This is evident in his suspension of the constitution during his 30-year leadership whenever he perceived that the values of the Marxist revolution were threatened. Political decisions continue to intervene in judicial judgments, of which the sentencing to death of those who corrupt the preferred system of power-holders is an example. The two-pronged system of the death sentence--with a 2-year reprieve and re-education through labor--remains unchanged. The role of the Maoist heritage, whose effects persist in the application of capital punishment today, has not been sufficiently analyzed and still requires further and more detailed study. The current study confines its analysis to Mao's conceptions of capital punishment and their influence on the construction of Communist China's legal system, notably the application of capital punishment that continues to the present. 10 notes and 58 references