China: Guangdong bag snatchers may face death penalty

Press release, 03/01/2006

Drive-by thieves who use violence may now face the death penalty, according to an alarming announcement by the Guangdong provincial authorities.

...The Vice-President of the Guangdong High People’s Court, Chen Huajie, announced on 28 February that the penalty for bag-snatching had been increased to a minimum prison sentence of three years, and can now include the death penalty. The ruling was a result of a new judicial interpretation that defined all kinds of violent bag-snatching by motorists as 'robbery'. The crime of bag-snatching used to attract a maximum sentence of three years in prison in Guangdong, according to reports in the Chinese press.

The move has been prompted by fears that such crimes are on the rise in the southern province of Guangdong, according to reports. The official Chinese press stated that over 80,000 people had been convicted of ‘robbery’ and ‘violent robbery’ in Guangdong between 2003 and 2005, accounting for more than one-third of the total number of criminals convicted.
http://news.amnesty.org/index/ENGASA170152006

:eyes:

Actually, when the victim is an elderly woman who is pulled off her feet, breaks a hip, and dies of complications, something fairly common, bag snatching is a serious assault. One of these days, with a bit of luck, you will get older, and things you now see as idle pranks will look much different.B-)

...for theft? I can see charging a thief with additional crimes if a victim gets hurt, but only commensurate with the injuries caused.

What other non-killing/non-murder crimes do you believe merit the death penalty? Once you start prescribing the death penalty for lesser crimes, it's a slippery slope to prescribing it for ALL crimes. As it is now, we're having to free quite a few death row inmates after DNA tests...how many more people will be wrongfully executed when we dramatically increase the death penalty cases?

But try to tell the Chinese that. It is going to take a while for them to value life as as we do. I do believe that we should set an example. I know you want instant change, but the number of cases changed by DNA testing is working in our favor.

And besides, the death penalty is NOT any more effective at deterring crime than life imprisonment.

http://www.deathpenalty.org/pdf_files/MythsandFactsEnglish2004.pdf