Criminal defendants’ family and the death penalty in China - a case analysis

ABSTRACT

The restorative justice movement has increased the rights of consciousness for crime victims and their families globally. Though the practice of family group conferences in Australia and New Zealand and the court-ordered mediation programmes in China have increasingly involved defendants and their families, their roles in the criminal justice system have not been the main focus of academic inquiries. Citing a high-profile capital case in China, the Nian Bin case, this study examines the defendant family’s strategies in seeking legal redress, managing physical, emotional and financial tolls as well as coping with the victim families, throughout their eight-year pursuit of Nian’s exoneration. Given Confucian teachings on the importance of family to the individual and the society at large, this study provides a microscopic view into various precipitating factors for a capital defendant’s family activism. It also draws broader implications for China’s criminal justice reforms and the restorative justice movement.

恢复性司法运动在国际范围内极大提高了犯罪受害人及其家庭的权利意识。在恢复性司法实践中, 澳大利亚与新西兰的原被告家庭会议以及中国的法庭调解制度在很大程度上允许被告人及其家属发声, 但是其在司法程序中的作用并没有引起充分的研究重视。本文以“念斌案”这个在中国发生的一宗有重大影响的死刑案件为基础, 着重探讨被告人家庭在为被告人平反的八年内是采取何种策略来寻求法律补救、应对物质、精神和经济压力, 以及应对与受害人家属关系。参考儒家文化中家庭价值观对个人及社会的影响力, 本文从微观层面探究死刑犯家庭如何开展自救活动, 并在宏观层面上讨论本研究对中国司法制度改革及恢复性司法运动的启示。

KEYWORDS:

• Restorative justice
• rights of family of defendant and victim
• death penalty
• legal aid
• China
• comparative

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).