Death Penalty Review System In The Song Dynasty

The Song Dynasty was in a period of great social transformation,with deep and rich connotations.Due to its unique social and historical reasons,the Song Dynasty became the dynasty with the highest legal system in our feudal society.The death penalty review system,as one of the most important judicial systems since ancient times,has also been developed to some extent in the Song Dynasty.Compared with previous dynasties,it has been reformed and innovated.Due to the social turmoil at that time,there were far more death penalty cases in the Song Dynasty than in the Tang Dynasty.In order to reduce unjust,false and wrong cases and alleviate social conflicts,it is particularly important to correctly execute the death penalty review procedures.Studying the death penalty review system in the Song Dynasty can enable us to understand the specific review conditions,review agencies,review procedures,and review results,and restore historical truth as much as possible.Due to the replacement of the ruling party and changes in the social environment,the rulers of the Song Dynasty constantly adjusted their control over the right to review the death penalty.At the beginning of Song Dynasty,local people enjoyed the right to review death penalty.Later,the right to review death penalty was returned to the central government.During this period,the review authority of death penalty kept changing with the adjustment of the right to review death penalty.In addition to the evolution of the local review agency,the central review agency is also constantly adjusting.The death penalty case was tried by Dali Temple early,and the Criminal Department reviewed it.In the second year of Chunhua,Song Taizong established the Trial Court in the ban.Since then,the Trial Court has become the supreme organ for reviewing death sentences.Before reviewing the death penalty,the Dali Temple and the Criminal Department need to report to the Trial Court.The Trial Court has become the death penalty review agency above the Criminal Ministry.Two years later,the Ministry of Criminal Affairs lost the function of reviewing death penalty cases and was completely replaced by the Tribunal.Because the case broken by Dali Temple is sent directly to the Trial Court,there is no need to go through the Criminal Department for a detailed review.This death penalty review method continued until Yuanfeng’s restructuring,the Trial Court was revoked,the Criminal Department restored its original powers,and regained the right to review the death penalty case.The review organs and review procedures of death penalty cases in the Song Dynasty are the focus of this article.This article divides the death penalty cases in the Song Dynasty into two types,namely ordinary death penalty cases and special death penalty cases.For undoubtedly difficult cases of capital punishment,the early song dynasty stipulated that state-level adjudication agencies may have the right to directly sentence and execute capital punishments without approval from the central government.For difficult cases in special death penalty cases,Zhizhou should send all the files to the central government for the court to make a final decision.After the reform of Yuanfeng,the state no longer has the right to review death penalty cases,and local ordinary death penalty cases must be reviewed by the road-level criminal prosecution department.In addition to this,the case of the military digging up can only be executed after being reviewed by the Privy Council.