A comparative study on the death penalty between China and the United States

Despite the significant differences between China and the United States in terms of cultural traditions, social systems, and levels of economic development, they have adopted similar policies towards the death penalty in the face of the global trend towards its abolition or severe restrictions – both countries retain the death penalty but restrict its application and strictly regulate its trial and execution procedures. This paper first introduces the death penalty from its concept, attributes, characteristics, and international status quo. It then compares and analyzes the death penalty systems of China and the United States regarding their origins and development, application systems, trial procedures, and execution systems. In the comparison of origins and development, the origins and development history of the death penalty in China are introduced in detail, which allows us to intuitively understand the historical origins of China's current death penalty system; at the same time, the development history of the death penalty in the United States is also introduced, and the historical origins of the current death penalty system in the United States are understood based on key historical figures and landmark cases. In the comparison of the applicable systems, a detailed comparison of the Capital Offenses as Applicable in China and the United States, and the Conditions for the application of capital offenses in China and the United States, we can see that although China and the United States still retain the death penalty as the most severe form of punishment, they are gradually reducing the crimes to which the death penalty applies and regulating the conditions for the application of the death penalty in order to achieve the goal of narrowing the scope of application of the death penalty and gradually aligning with international standards and keeping up with international development trends. Regarding the trial system, our analysis found that China and the United States have more complex and rigorous trial procedures for capital cases than other criminal cases. This is because procedural fairness is the guarantee of substantive justice. Through due process, it is possible to prevent unjustified and wrongful killings to the greatest extent possible, reduce and alleviate the dissatisfaction of the parties, their relatives, and the public with the trial's outcome, and achieve the unity of substantive and procedural justice. In terms of the enforcement system, a comparative study was conducted on the methods of execution, the execution process, and the inadequacy of the death penalty in China and the United States. Although both countries have their inadequacies in the enforcement of the death penalty, the general trend is that both countries are moving towards the humanization and mitigation of the death penalty.