Public to hear death penalty appeals

From next year, local courts will hold public hearings for all death penalty appeals starting next year, part of a broader attempt to make capital punishment procedures more open, the Financial Times reported. The Supreme People's Court has said that open hearings would be held for highly controversial death sentence court appeals from January 1 and for all death sentence appeals from the second half of the year. Rights groups and legal scholars claim that the number of people executed in China is excessive and convictions at times lack solid evidence.