Top judge Xiao Yang said since the Supreme Court took back the power of reviewing death sentences from provincial courts since Jan. 1 last year, the capital punishment has been "strictly, cautiously and fairly" meted out to the tiny number of serious criminal offenders in China.

"The transition work has been smooth, orderly and trials of death sentence cases normal," Xiao, president of the Supreme People's Court and chief justice, said in his work report to the ongoing session of the Parliament, without elaboration.

Xiao said the SPC has in the past year improved the procedure for second instance trials of death sentence cases and the procedure for the final review of death penalty with unified criteria applied.

"The SPC has been working to ensure that the capital punishment only applies to the very few number of felons who committed extremely serious, atrocious crimes that lead to grave social consequences," Xiao told the lawmakers.

(Xinhua News Agency March 10, 2008)