At a recent conference to discuss amendments to the penal code, legal experts gathered to propose a number of changes, including the possible removal of the death penalty.
A trial for murder and robbery held by the HCM City People's Court
Argument over the death penalty
Tran Cong Phan, Deputy Head of the People's Supreme Procuracy, said in reality there are a number of crimes for which execution of the death penalty has never been applied, such as espionage or those involving national security. He attributed this to the social and political stability of Vietnam.
Assistant Professor, Dr. Duong Tuyet Mien, of Hanoi Law University said, "We shouldn't completely remove the death penalty, but some flexibility should be given to certain crimes, such as those involving national security and fraud in the food and drug market. We should replace the death penalty with life sentences in such cases."
Asides from minors, pregnant women and women with child aged under three who have been exempted from death penalty, Mien proposed to extend the leniency toward old people aged higher than 70. She said, base on the humanitarian principles, the highest sentence for them should be life sentence.
Crime after crime
Some at the conference suggested the removal of some crimes from the legal code because of the scarcity of cases.
Le Thanh Duong, Head of the Appellate Department in HCMC said some crimes are rarely brought to court, such as delinquency of child support payments and advertising fraud.
He said there are offenses that the court would consider crimes that locals consider tradition, such as forced marriages or forbidding marriages.
However, the most controversial cases involve statutory rape. These cases pose a problem for courts, especially those in which authorities find out that in a married couple, with children, the wife is a minor.
The Vice Chairwoman of the National Assembly's Legislation Committee, Le Thi Nga, said the laws still have some loose ends that should be addressed. "We have a long list of offenders each year, many of which just end up in reduced or delayed sentences or parole. This is a waste of time, effort and money," she said.
Many legal experts have suggested clearer laws related to crimes of corruption and prison sentences.
