The abolition of death penalty for nine types of crime will help China more easily convince other countries to extradite corruption suspects that have fled overseas. Despite solid evidence against the suspects, many developed countries have refused to extradite them to China under the excuse that the suspects could face "capital punishment". Such excuses will diminish with similar moves. And corrupt officials will find their living space shrinking further with China's judicial reform.

cqnews.net, Oct 27

It is widely believed that death penalty is an extreme judicial measure, so it should be handed down for the most heinous crimes. To gradually abolish the death penalty, we should start with non-violent crimes, like economic crimes.