High court to order provinces to retry death sentences

China's Supreme People's Court (SPC) will not change sentences in death penalty cases, according to Chinese news agency Xinhua. Instead, if it finds errors in judgements, it will send cases back to the provincial courts for retrial.

“The new regulation will guarantee that death sentences are handed out with caution by ordering retrials, which will also improve the efficiency of SPC death penalty reviews,” a SPC spokesman told Xinhua in February.