(Selected from the translated work titled The Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China, authored by Robert Zhang and Steve Li, criminal defense lawyers registered in Shanghai, China.)
Section 5 Death Penalty
Article 48 [Scope of Application of and Approval Procedures of Death Penalty and Reprieve] The death penalty shall only be imposed on offenders of extremely vicious crimes.
Where an offender should be punished by death penalty but immediate execution is not necessary, a two-year reprieve may be granted when declaring the death penalty.
Except for death penalties that shall be determined by the Supreme People's Court in accordance with the law, the conviction of death penalty shall be submitted to the Supreme People's Court for approval.
The death penalty with a reprieve may be determined or approved by a high people's court.
