The draft Law amends and supplements a number of articles of the Penal Code to remove the death penalty and replace it with a life imprisonment without a reduced sentence for 8 crimes, including:
Crime of activities to overthrow the people's government; Spy crimes; Crime of destroying facilities - techniques of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam; Crime of production and trading of fake goods is a medicine and preventive medicine; Illegal transportation of narcotics; Crime of property embezzlement; Guilty of accepting bribes; Crime of destroying peace, causing war invasion.
According to the Ministry of Public Security Portal, the proposal of narrowing the death penalty as above in order to institutionalize the Party's views and policies has been determined in the Resolution No. 49 of the Politburo and the content of the Project reviewing and assessing the inadequacies in the Criminal Code, the Criminal Procedure Code and the Criminal Judgment Law related to the application of death penalty and death penalty execution; study reducing the crime of application of death penalty; Strengthening the application of conversion from the death penalty to the imprisonment penalty of the Supreme People's Procuracy has been commented by the Politburo.
According to the Ministry of Public Security, currently, for crimes of embezzlement of property, bribery and illegal transportation of drugs, many countries in the world have required Vietnam to commit not to apply the death penalty or sentence but not to execute the death penalty for cases of corruption, position, and drugs, but Vietnam has not committed. Therefore, when Vietnam requested judicial assistance related to the death penalty, there was almost no response.
According to the provisions of the 2015 Penal Code (amended and supplemented in 2017), the quantitative levels and types of punishments in frames with the highest penalty are the death penalty on some crimes are still relatively wide (20 -year imprisonment framework, life imprisonment or death penalty), leading to determining the basis to apply death penalty still facing difficulties in reality.
The application of life imprisonment framework or death penalty is still inadequate, in many cases, based on the nature, level and consequences; If the imprisonment is life imprisonment, it is too light, does not guarantee deterrence, however, if the death penalty is too heavy, it is not suitable for the Party and the State's views on limiting the application and execution of the death penalty.
The non-compliance of the death sentence for those sentenced to death for serious diseases such as terminal cancer and HIV infection has shifted to the AIDS stage with an opportunity infection, a poor prognosis demonstrating the humanity of criminal law.
At the same time, it contributes to reducing unnecessary legal procedures for those who are no longer able to endanger society, helping to save costs and reduce pressure on the enforcement agency.
The crimes with the death penalty will be replaced by a life sentence without a reduction, on the one hand ensuring the right to life of people, on the other hand, ensuring permanent isolation from social life.
The abandonment of the death penalty for the above crimes is aimed at the more humanitarian criminal legal system, in accordance with the views and policies of our Party and State on reducing the death penalty, in accordance with the traditions and morals of the Vietnamese people, ensuring fairness in criminal policies for corresponding acts prescribed in the Criminal Code.
At the same time, it demonstrates Vietnam's responsibility as a member of international human rights treaties, contributing to promoting increasingly strong and mutually trusting cooperation relations.
