老年人犯罪死刑立法的理性思考——《刑法修正案（八）》第3条的理解与适用

摘要

No.8 Amendment to the Criminal Law first described the application of death penalty to senior criminals though there are still uncertainties in some words. This paper discusses, from the point that light penalty shall be applied to seniors , the senior＇s criminal ability, Chinese tradition of ＂respect seniors＂, the background of strict and flexible death policy in practice, murder with very cruel measures and the condition of being over 75 years old in procedure, gives out the advices for bettering and revising.%《刑法修正案（八）》首次对老年人犯罪的死刑适用作出相关规定，但个别语句含义不够明确。文章从老年人犯罪死刑限制适用具有从轻处罚的依据入手，对老年人所具有的刑事责任能力，我国“矜老”的文化传统，司法实践中宽严相济的死刑政策背景等方面予以论述，并对“审判的时候已满75周岁”、“以特别残忍手段致人死亡”等相关语句进行解读，提出对老年人犯罪死刑限制内容进一步修订、完善的建议。