| The crime of intentional homicide is a felony in Chinese Criminal Code and is a crime most frequently imposed by death penalty. Therefore, the sentencing of the death penalty for the crime of intentional homicide is very significant for the reduction and control of the death penalty. By taking an empirical method, this paper chooses ten cases which were found by the courts to be intentional homicide with cruel methods from The General Comment on the Rationale of Decisions of Criminal Guiding Cases by People's Court and makes an analysis on the judicial assessment of the cruelness of method in the crime of intentional homicide.This paper argues that, the so-called cruelness of method in the crime of intentional homicide means that the killer intentionally excruciates the victim during the process of homicide, which causes physical and mental suffering to the victim before the death. This paper also argues that, the demarcation line between the cruelness of method and such evaluative words as the gravity of circumstances, the vileness of circumstances as well as the seriousness of result has been blurred in our judicial practice, which has led to the generalization of the cruelness of method in the crime of intentional homicide and even become a legal stereotype. Thus this paper tries to specify and classify the cruelness of method in the crime of intentional homicide. This paper finally makes a systematic analysis on the sentencing of the death penalty in the crime of intentional homicide from the following aspects, i. e., the nature of the case, the circumstances of the offense, the result of the offense, and the subjective evil and personal dangerousness. |
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