At the beginning of 2007 an old rule became reinstated, giving the Supreme People's Court in Beijing a final say for all death sentences in the country. Up to then decisions were made on a provincial or local level, not only causing a number of death sentences that was higher than in all other countries combined, the reasons for getting a death sentence could also vary greatly from province to province.
While it was certainly not close to an abolishment of the death sentence, something people and institutions inside and outside China have been pleading for, it created a tool for the central government to have influence on the issue. Numbers are never given, but a top-judge disclosed that the number of capital punishments had dropped in 2007 by 15 percent, here according to Reuters.
That percentage is lower than I would have expected, when the new measures came into place. A bit more transparency would be in place. I do expect that the highest court, having set up a whole set of new chambers to deal with the flood of death penalties, might be rather reluctant to overturn large number of verdicts in the first year.
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