One Chinese lawyer's crusade

Xia Lianggui, a farmer's son from the southeastern province of Jiangxi, raped his girlfriend. When she demanded they marry, he strangled her. Although he was a minor, Chinese courts sentenced the youth to death.

But then defense attorney Li Yunlong took on the case.

"[His] father spent all night traveling to see me," says Mr. Li, recalling the case of a few years ago with pride. "I discovered that although the court said he was 18 ... his residence card said he was underage." The youth was sent to a prison for minors, and after two years, his sentence was reduced from life to 18 years.

In a country that, according to Amnesty International, executes more people for more crimes than the rest of the world put together, defense lawyer Li has made a career of launching last-minute successful appeals for death-row defendants. Of the 16 clients on death row he has taken on, 12 have won reprieves, including some like Xia who had been found guilty of murder.

"When I go into the prison, the prisoners fall to their knees and beg me to save them," the attorney says. "I do what I can, but sometimes, nothing can be done."

His clients seek him out in Jiangxi Province's capital city, Nanchang, where he's a law professor. Often he's paid with little more than fresh vegetables, or in Xia's case, "all the father had was a basket of fresh eggs, so I accepted that as payment," says Li, whose campaign against the death penalty also includes 20 years of writing articles and books.

"My family taught [that] one should walk without killing the ants," he says. "Killing is not the right way to solve problems."

Sentences are carried out swiftly in China, often by a bullet to the back of the head after verdicts are read in a stadium or other public place. The appeals process is sometimes no longer than weeks or even days.

The role of defense lawyer in Chinese courts was established officially for the first time only five years ago with the adoption of a "lawyer's law." Today, many lawyers are frequently arrested for attempting to thwart the authority of the state if they plead too vigorously. But Li, a 51-year-old former Red Guard from Jiangxi province and a Communist Party member for 30 years, says he has not encountered resistance and has not been arrested.

What separates China from other countries like the US, Iran, and Saudi Arabia, who are also criticized for using capital punishment, is the large number of crimes which are punishable by death. Last week, for example, the country participated in the United Nations International Anti-Drugs Day by carrying out a series of executions of drug convicts – reports estimated between 50 and 90 were put to death.

When the People's Republic produced its first criminal code soon after 1979, it included the death penalty for 73 out of a list of 430 crimes, including 28 loosely defined economic crimes.

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