娄秋琴律师就备受社会关注的药家鑫撞人杀人案接受央视采访

2011年6月7日，娄秋琴律师受中央电视台英文频道《中国24小时》栏目邀请，就备受社会广泛关注的西安药家鑫撞人杀人案接受电话连线采访，并对案件中的自首问题及死刑适用问题发表了意见。以下是采访的部分内容：

Q1 Yao Jiaxin’s case is one of the death penalties after the legislative body launched stricter check for death penalties. We know Yao gave himself to the police, and quickly confessed his crimes, which some say is considered as preconditions for lighter penalties. But the death penalties are still upheld, Why?

Confession to justice is a legal circumstance in which suspect can be given a lighter or mitigated sentence. However, according to our country’s Criminal Law, confession to justice just “can” ,not “must” , alleviate punishment. Whether to alleviate punishment is based on a comprehensive analysis of all the specific situation of the case.

In Yao' case, the police had visited Yao's home during investigation, but Yao denied his crime. Although later he commit self-confession with his parents' companion, the court finally decided that a lenient  sentence is not applicable to him, considering his  extremely despicable motivation and bloody behavior in the crime, as well as the extremely serious consequences in the case.

Q2 The case has further heated up the debate on the need of death penalties in the society. Traditionally, Chinese believe one needs to pay with one’s life for killing others. Like what we see in Yao’s case, some people say on the internet that the family of the victim can be consoled if the murderer is sentenced to death. But on the other hand, many think a death sentence is too severe, and the case needs to be dealt with in a humanitarian way. What’s your view on this? And what do you see the trend of death penalties from Yao’s case?

The death penalty is closely related to the most basic human right—life, it should be used prudently or limitedly, this also conforms to the spirit of our country’s criminal law and policy.

As an individual case, Yao's sentence is not important enough to be treated as a vital example in the discussion of abolishing or maitaining the death penalty. Personally speaking, according to our country’s situation, although death penalty cannot be abolished immediately, it should be only applied to extremely violent crimes. Meanwhile the courts should strictly exam and judge the evidence, to make sure that it is true and abundant, and in this way insure every death sentence can withstand the test of history.

新闻背景：

新华社西安6月7日电　经最高人民法院核准，故意杀人罪犯药家鑫7日在陕西省西安市被依法执行死刑。

2011年4月22日，陕西省西安市中级人民法院以故意杀人罪判处被告人药家鑫死刑，剥夺政治权利终身。宣判后，药家鑫提出上诉。陕西省人民检察院认为该案事实清楚，证据充分，建议二审驳回上诉，维持原判。陕西省高级人民法院经依法审理，于5月20日依法作出裁定，驳回药家鑫上诉，维持原判，并依法报请最高人民法院核准。

最高人民法院经复核认为，被告人药家鑫开车撞倒被害人张妙后，又持刀将张妙杀死，其行为构成故意杀人罪。药家鑫仅因交通肇事将被害人撞倒后，为逃避责任杀人灭口，持尖刀朝被害人胸、腹、背部等处连续捅刺数刀，将被害人当场杀死，其犯罪动机极其卑劣，手段特别残忍，情节特别恶劣，后果特别严重，属罪行极其严重。药家鑫在作案后第四天由其父母带领到公安机关投案，如实供述犯罪事实，构成自首，但不足以从轻处罚。第一审判决、第二审裁定认定的事实清楚，证据确实、充分，定罪准确，量刑适当，审判程序合法，故依法作出核准死刑的裁定。

西安市中级人民法院7日上午在宣告上述裁定后，对药家鑫执行了死刑。