MCLC: Interviews Before Execution

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: han meng (hanmeng at gmail.com)
Subject: Interviews Before Execution
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Source: BBC News (3/12/12): http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17303746

China's death row TV hit: Interviews Before Execution
By James Jones This World

In Henan Province, in central China, millions of people have been tuning
in every week to watch an extraordinary talk show called Interviews Before
Execution, in which a reporter interviews murderers condemned to death.
The show ran for just over five years, until it was taken off air on
Friday.

Every Monday morning, reporter Ding Yu and her team scoured court reports
to find cases to cover on their programme. They had to move quickly, as
prisoners in China can be executed seven days after they are sentenced.

To Western eyes the show's format may seem exploitative, but Ding
disagrees.

"Some viewers may consider it cruel to ask a criminal to do an interview
when they are about to be executed.

"On the contrary, they want to be heard," she says.

"Some criminals I interviewed told me: 'I'm really very glad. I said so
many things in my heart to you at this time. In prison, there was never a
person I was willing to talk to about past events.'"

Interviews Before Execution was first broadcast on 18 November 2006 on
Henan Legal Channel, one of 3,000 state-owned TV stations in China. Ding
interviewed a prisoner every week until the programme was taken off air.

The move follows a handful of reports about the show in foreign media,
which were triggered by a documentary to be screened on the BBC tonight
and on PBS International in the near future.

The aim of Interviews Before Execution, the programme-makers say, was to
find cases that would serve as a warning to others. The slogan at the top
of every programme called for human nature to awaken and "perceive the
value of life".

In China, 55 crimes carry the death penalty, from murder, treason and
armed rebellion to bribery and smuggling. Thirteen other crimes, including
VAT fraud, smuggling relics and credit fraud, were only recently removed
from the list of capital offences.

Interviews Before Execution, however, focused exclusively on cases of
violent murder.

It never interviewed political prisoners or cases where the crime was in
question, and the team received the Henan high court's consent in every
case.

"Without their consent, our programme would end immediately," Ding told
the BBC documentary team.

Broadcast every Saturday night, the programme was frequently rated one of
Henan's top 10 shows, with nearly 40 million viewers out of the 100
million who live in the province.

It made Ding Yu a star, known to many as "Beauty with the Beasts".

If people failed to heed the warnings the programme offered, she says,
then it was right that they should face the consequences.

"I feel sorry and regretful for them. But I don't sympathise with them,
for they should pay a heavy price for their wrongdoing. They deserve it."

Many of the cases featured in the programme were motivated by money and
one case in particular stands out for Ding.

The perpetrators were boyfriend and girlfriend - young, educated college
graduates.

The couple planned to rob her grandparents but it went wrong and the young
man, 27-year-old Zhang Peng, ended up killing them both.

"They are so young. They never had the chance to see this world, or to
enjoy life, a career, work, and the love of family.

"They've made the wrong choice, and the price is their lives," Ding says.

But after more than 200 interviews, little surprises her.

"I've interviewed criminals even younger than that young student, some
just 18 years old. That is the minimum age you can be sentenced to death."

Homosexuality is still a huge taboo in China, and when in 2008 the show
covered the case of Bao Ronting, a gay man who murdered his mother,
ratings soared.

It was the first time Ding had ever met an openly gay man.

"I had never come close to a gay man, so I really couldn't accept some of
his practices, words and deeds.

"Though he was a man, he asked me in a very feminine tone, 'Do you feel
awkward speaking to me?' Actually I felt very awkward," she recalls.

She and her team made a further three episodes on the case of Bao Ronting
and followed him until the day he was executed in November 2008.

During one of these meetings, Bao asked Ding: "Will I go to heaven?"

Remembering these words, she reflects: "I witness the transition from life
to death."

Bao Ronting was paraded in an open top truck on the way to his execution
with a placard around his neck, detailing his crime. The practice is
illegal in modern China - but the law is not always observed.

Judge Lui Wenling, who worked closely with the programme-makers, says
things are changing in the Chinese legal system.

"The present criminal policies in China are 'To kill less and cautiously'
and 'Combining lenience and strictness'.

"It means, 'If the case is fit for lenient treatment, give it lenience,'
and, 'If the case should be strictly treated, give it a strict
punishment,'" he says.

Ding recently covered the case of Wu Yanyan, a young mother who murdered
her husband after allegedly suffering years of abuse.

She was initially sentenced to death for the murder. But since 2007, every
execution verdict in China has to be approved by the Supreme Court, and in
this case it took the view that the abuse provided mitigating
circumstances.

The higher court kept returning the case to the local court until the
death sentence was suspended.

Ding visited the prison with Wu Yanyan's daughter for an emotional
reunion. If the young mother continues to behave well in prison, after two
years she could ultimately be released - a small sign of changing
attitudes in China.

Some senior figures in the justice system foresee more far-reaching
reforms in the future, including Judge Pan, another judge who has worked
closely with the programme.

"A life could end in the twinkling of an eye after a trial. I'd say this
is also very cruel," she says.

"It's also a means of getting rid of evil deeds through an evil deed.

"Should we abolish the death penalty? Since the death sentence for
criminals is itself a violent act, then we should abolish it. However, I
don't think our country is ready yet.

"But in the future, it would be good to abolish it."