谢觉哉的慎刑思想及其实践

Xie Juezai’s Thought of Careful Punishment and Its Practice

谢觉哉是我国新民主主义革命时期和新中国时期法治建设事业的开创者和奠基者。在刑事法领域,他的慎刑思想贯穿于刑罚制度的设立、适用和执行等多个方面,主要表现为:坚持少杀、慎杀,严格控制死刑的适用;主张保障人权,反对轻罪重罚;从事实出发,反对刑讯逼供,不放过任何冤案,其慎刑思想对我国现代刑事法律制度的发展和实践起到了非常重要的作用,对今天的司法实践仍然具有重要的指导意义。

Xie Juezai was the initiator and founder of the rule of law construction in the period of New Democratic Revolution and the new China. In the field of Criminal Law, his legal thought of careful punishment runs through many aspects of the establishment, application and execution of the penalty system, which mainly manifests as follows: the adherence to less killing, careful killing, and strict control of the application of death penalty;the advocacy of the protection of human rights and opposition to heavy punishment for minor crimes;the reliance on facts, the opposition to extorting a confession by torture, and the principle of not letting go of any unjust cases. The thought of careful punishment plays a very important role in the development and practice of China’s modern Criminal Law system, and it still has an important guiding significance to today’s judicial practice.