China mulls ending death penalty for 9 crimes

China is considering dropping nine crimes — including weapons smuggling, counterfeiting and brokering prostitution — from the list of offenses punishable by death, state media said on Monday, as the ruling Communist Party considers broader reforms to the country's legal system.

Rights groups say China uses capital punishment more than any other country, raising public concern of irreversible miscarriages of justice. The reduction in death penalty crimes, however, is not expected to greatly reduce the number of executions per year, scholars have said. The San Francisco-based Dui Hua Foundation, which seeks the release of political prisoners in China, estimated that 2,400 people were executed in 2013. By comparison, 39 people were executed in 2013 in the United States, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

On Monday, a meeting of the National People's Congress received the proposal to reduce the number of capital offenses, state-run news agency Xinhua reported. The body is expected to review the proposal this week in its bi-monthly session.

Crimes that would be exempt from capital punishment under the amendment include "smuggling weapons, ammunition, nuclear materials or counterfeit currencies; counterfeiting currencies; raising funds by means of fraud; and arranging for or forcing another person to engage in prostitution,” Xinhua said.

A draft amendment to China's criminal law, which includes the use of the death penalty, was submitted for initial review to the country's National People's Congress, Xinhua said.

The crimes of "obstructing a commander or a person on duty from performing his duties" and "fabricating rumors to mislead others during wartime” are also under review, the news agency said.

Officials had previously said China would review the application of the death penalty, which applies to 55 offenses. The government considers the number of people executed each year a state secret.

The Dui Hua Foundation has reviewed the decisions made by the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) and found the number of executions has fallen in recent years, citing the 2007 return of “the power of final review” to the court.

“Since then, the number of executions nationwide may have dropped by more than a third with declines of nearly 50 percent in some locales,” the group said, citing a report in the Southern Weekly, a mainland magazine based in the southern industrial city of Guangzhou.

In 2013, the court recommended an end to using torture to extract confessions from suspects, although rights groups say the practice persists. 

The Communist Party — worried about rising social unrest and anger over land grabs, corruption and pollution — unveiled legal reforms aimed at improving judicial independence at a key meeting last week.

The party has stressed that it will remain in overall control of the judiciary, and despite the move to implement legal reforms, few analysts expect significant political change any time soon.

Al Jazeera and wire services