Resolution 03/2025/NQ-HDTP on commutation of death penalty to life imprisonment

RESOLUTION

Guiding the application of a number of provisions on commutation of the death penalty to life imprisonment
 

Pursuant to Law No. 34/2024/QH15 on Organization of People’s Courts, which has a number of articles amended and supplemented under Law No. 81/2025/QH15;

Pursuant to Penal Code No. 100/2015/QH13, which has a number of articles amended and supplemented under Law No. 12/2017/QH14, Law No. 59/2024/QH15, and Law No. 86/2025/QH15;

In order to properly and uniformly apply a number of provisions on commutation of the death penalty to life imprisonment under Clauses 2 and 3, Article 4 of Law No. 86/2025/QH15 Amending and Supplementing a Number of Articles of the Penal Code;

After obtaining opinions of the Procurator General of the Supreme People’s Procuracy and the Minister of Justice;

The Council of Justices of the Supreme People’s Court promulgates the Resolution guiding the application of a number of provisions on commutation of the death penalty to life imprisonment.

Article 1. Scope of regulation

This Resolution guides the application of a number of provisions of Clauses 2 and 3, Article 4 of Law No. 86/2025/QH15 Amending and Supplementing a Number of Articles of the Penal Code on commutation of the death penalty to life imprisonment for persons sentenced to death before July 1, 2025, whose sentences havee yet to be executed.

Article 2. Cases of commutation of the death penalty to life imprisonment

A person sentenced to death before July 1, 2025, whose sentence has  yet to be executed, may have his/her sentence commuted to life imprisonment if he/she falls in one of the following cases:

1. Suffering terminal cancer as specified at Point c, Clause 3, Article 40 of Penal Code No. 100/2015/QH13 which has a number of articles amended and supplemented under Law No. 12/2017/QH14, Law No. 59/2024/QH15, and Law No. 86/2025/QH15 (below referred to as Penal Code);

2. Being sentenced to death for one of the following offenses, including carrying out activities aimed at overthrowing the people’s administration (Article 109); espionage (Article 110), sabotaging physical-technical foundations of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (Article 114); producing or trading in counterfeit goods being curative medicines or preventive medicines (Article 194); illegally transporting narcotics (Article 250); embezzling property (Article 353); taking bribes (Article 354); and crimes against peace, waging wars of aggression (Article 421);

3. Being sentenced to death for illegally producing narcotics (Article 248) or illegally purschasing or selling narcotics (Article 251) if falling in one of the following cases:

a/ The weight or volume of narcotics determined in the judgment to rule on the penalty is equal to or lower than the lowest weight or volume of narcotics specified in Clause 5, Article 248 or Clause 5, Article 251 of the Penal Code;

b/ The weight or volume of narcotics determined in the judgment to rule on the penalty is greater than the lowest weight or volume of narcotics specified in Clause 5, Article 248 or Clause 5, Article 251 of the Penal Code and the offender is not the mastermind, leader or commander, or the case does not involve 2 or more aggravating circumstances.

Article 3. Commutation of the death penalty to life imprisonment for cases specified at Point c, Clause 3, Article 40 of the Penal Code

1. A person sentenced to death who suffers from terminal cancer may be considered for commutation of the death penalty to life imprisonment, if he/she obtains a conclusion issued by a specialized healthcare facility stating that he/she suffers from terminal cancer as specified by the Law on Medical Examination and Treatment and its guiding document. The conclusion must be issued within 6 months counting from the date of issuance to the date the Chief Justice of the Supreme People’s Court reviews and rules on the penalty.

2. After receiving a document issued by the Ministry of Public Security’s detention camp, the Ministry of National Defense’s detention camp, or a provincial-level Public Security’s detention camp stating that the person sentenced to death falls into the cases specified at Point c, Clause 3, Article 40 of the Penal Code, or when detecting during the reviewing process that the person sentenced to death falls into the case specified at Point c, Clause 3, Article 40 of the Penal Code, the court that has conducted the first-instance trial shall draw up a list of persons eligible for commutation of the death penalty to life imprisonment, and send the list enclosed with case files and relevant documents to the Supreme People’s Procuracy.

3. Immediately after receiving the list of persons eligible for commutation of the death penalty to life imprisonment, enclosed with case files and relevant documents and the Supreme People’s Procuracy’s opinions, the Chief Justice of the Supreme People’s Court shall review and decide on the commutation of the death penalty to life imprisonment.

Article 4. Commutation of the death penalty to life imprisonment for cases specified at Point a, Clause 3, Article 4 of Law No. 86/2025/QH15 Amending and Supplementing a Number of Articles of the Penal Code

1. A person sentenced to death for the offense of illegally producing narcotics (Article 248) may have his/her death sentence commuted to life imprisonment if the weight or volume of narcotics is determined in the judgment as follows:

a/ Involving 30 kilograms or less of poppy resin, cannabis resin or coca paste;

b/ Involving 3 kilograms or less of heroine, cocaine, methamphetamine, amphetamine, MDMA or XLR-1;

c/ Involving 9 kilograms or less of other narcotics in solid form;

d/ Involving 22 litters or less of other narcotics in liquid form;

dd/ Involving 2 or more kinds of narcotics with an aggregate weight or volume equivalent to one of those specified at Points a thru d of this Clause.

2. A person sentenced to death for the offense of illegally purchasing or selling narcotics (Article 251) may have his/her death sentence commuted to life imprisonment if the weight or volume of narcotics is determined in the judgment as follows:

a/ Involving 30 kilograms or less of poppy resin, cannabis resin or coca paste;

b/ Involving 3 kilograms or less of heroine, cocaine, methamphetamine, amphetamine, MDMA or XLR-1;

c/ Involving 150 kilograms or less of coca leaves; khat (catha edulis) leaves; leaves, roots, stems, branches, flowers or fruits of cannabis plants or parts of other narcotic-bearing plants specified by the Government;

d/ Involving 1,200 kilograms or less of dried poppy fruits;

dd/ Involving 300 kilograms or less of fresh poppy fruits;

e/ Involving 9 kilograms or less of other narcotics in solid form;

g/ Involving 22 litters or less of other narcotics in liquid form;

h/ Involving 2 or more kinds of narcotics with an aggregate weight or volume equivalent to one of those specified at Points a through g of this Clause.

Article 5. Commutation of the death penalty to life imprisonment for cases specified at Point b, Clause 3, Article 4 of Law No. 86/2025/QH15 Amending and Supplementing a Number of Articles of the Penal Code

A person sentenced to death for the offense of illegally producing narcotics (Article 248) and illegally purchasing or selling narcotics (Article 251) may have his/her death sentence commuted to life imprisonment if the weight or volume of the narcotics determined in the judgment is higher than the weight or volume of narcotics specified in Article 4 of this Resolution and he/she falls into one of the following cases:

1. In the judgment, he/she is not identified as a conspirator, ringleader or commander. A conspirator, ringleader or commander shall be identified as follows:

a/ A conspirator means a person who establishes, incites or persuades a group of accomplices to commit a violation of law;

b/ A ringleader means a person who initiates a plan, proposes an idea or a plot, or determines the operating method of a group of accomplices;

c/ A commander means a person who assigns tasks and responsibilities, urges, personally directs or coordinates the operations of a group of accomplices;

d/ An individual organizing a violation of law shall also be regarded as a conspirator, ringleader or commander.

2. In the judgment, he/she does not have 2 or more circumstances aggravating his/her penal liability as specified in Article 52 of the Penal Code. In this case, the court shall solely base itself on circumstances aggravating penal liability specified in Article 52 of the Penal Code to consider and decide on the commutation of the death penalty while disregarding circumstances extenuating penal liability specified in Article 51 of the Penal Code.

Article 6. Consideration and decision on commutation of the death penalty to life imprisonment in a number of specific cases

1. When considering and deciding on the commutation of the death penalty to life imprisonment for the cases specified in Article 5 of this Resolution, a court shall base itself on first-instance and appellate judgments to rule as follows:

a/ In case the first-instance judgment identifies or assesses that a person sentenced to death is a conspirator, ringleader or commander as defined in Clause 1, Article 5 of this Resolution, and the appellate judgment, whether or not identifies the person as a conspirator, ringleader or commander, upholds the death penalty, he/she may not have his/her death penalty commuted to life imprisonment.

b/ In case both the first-instance judgment and the appellate judgment identify a person sentenced to death as a conspirator, ringleader or commander but base the death penalty ruling on the quantity and volume of narcotics, the circumstances aggravating penal liability, and the circumstances extenuating penal liability, his/her death penalty may be commuted to life imprisonment if he/she does not have 2 or more circumstances aggravating penal liability.

c/ In case the judgments do not identify a person sentenced to death as a conspirator, ringleader or commander, but he/she has organized or committed one or more acts specified in Clause 1, Article 5 of this Resolution, his/her death penalty may not be commuted to life imprisonment.

2. In a case that involves accomplice(s) in which only 1 defendant is tried and then sentenced to death for the offense of illegally producing narcotics (Article 248) or illegally purchasing or selling narcotics (Article 251), the court shall commute his/her death penalty to life imprisonment if the judgment does not identify that the person sentenced to death is a conspirator, ringleader or commander or if he/she does not have 2 or more circumstances aggravating penal liability.

3. In a case that involves no accomplice and a defendant is sentenced to death for the offense of illegally producing narcotics (Article 248) or illegally purchasing or selling narcotics (Article 251), the court shall commute the death penalty to life imprisonment if he/she does not have 2 or more circumstances aggravating penal liability.

4. In case a person commits the offense of illegally producing narcotics (Article 248) or illegally purchasing or selling narcotics (Article 251) twice or more, is tried for these offenses in the same case and is sentenced to death, and he/she has committed either of these offenses as a conspirator, ringleader or commander, the court will not commute his/her death penalty to life imprisonment.

5. In case a person is sentenced to death for the offense of illegally producing narcotics (Article 248) or illegally purchasing or selling narcotics (Article 251) in multiple judgments, and the judgment imposing the death penalty does not identify him/her as a conspirator, ringleader or commander, while other judgments that do not impose the death penalty identify him/her as a conspirator, ringleader or commander, the court will not commute the death penalty to life imprisonment.

Article 7. Review and formulation of the list of persons eligible for death sentence commutation in the cases specified in Clause 3, Article 4 of Law No. 86/2025/QH15 Amending and Supplementing a Number of Articles of the Penal Code

The review and formulation of the list of persons eligible for commutation of the death penalty to life imprisonment under Clause 3, Article 4 of Law No. 86/2025/QH15 Amending and Supplementing a Number of Articles of the Penal Code shall be carried out as follows:

1. In case a court that has conducted the first-instance trial manages case files, it shall review and formulate the list of persons eligible for commutation of the death penalty to life imprisonment, and send such list together with the case files and enclosed documents (if any) to the Supreme People’s Court within 3 working days after the list is formulated;

2. In case the Appellate Court of the Supreme People’s Court manages case files, if the appellate judgment upholds the initial judgment imposing the death penalty, it shall transfer the case files to the provincial-level people’s court that has conducted the first-instance trial for reviewing and formulating the list of persons eligible for commutation of the death penalty to life imprisonment and enclosed documents (if any) to the Supreme People’s Court within 3 working days after the list is formulated;

3. In case the Central Military Court manages case files, it shall review and formulate the list of persons eligible for commutation of the death penalty to life imprisonment, and send such list together with the case files and enclosed documents (if any) to the Supreme People’s Court within 3 working days after the list is formulated;

4. In case after receiving the list of persons eligible for commutation of the death penalty to life imprisonment together with the case files and enclosed documents (if any) transferred by the Supreme People’s Procuracy or the Office of the President, the Chief Justice of the Supreme People’s Court shall consider and decide on the commutation of the death penalty to life imprisonment.

Article 8. Consideration of commutation of the death penalty to life imprisonment

1. The Chief Justice of the Supreme People’s Court shall consider and decide on the commutation of the death penalty to life imprisonment as follows:

a/ In case of a person ineligible for commutation of the death penalty to life imprisonment, the Chief Justice of the Supreme People’s Court shall notify his/her ineligibility in writing to the agency that formulated the list of persons eligible for commutation of the death penalty to life imprisonment and other related agencies (if any);

b/ In case of a person eligible for commutation of the death penalty to life imprisonment, the Chief Justice of the Supreme People’s Court shall issue a ruling on commutation of the death penalty to life imprisonment.

2. The ruling specified at Point b, Clause 1 of this Article shall be sent to the Office of the President, the Supreme People’s Procuracy, the court that has conducted the first-instance trial and the procuracy of the same level as the court, the detention facility where the convict is held, and the convict.

3. Within 7 days after receiving the Chief Justice of the Supreme People’s Court’s ruling on commutation of the death penalty to life imprisonment, the chief justice of the court that has conducted the first-instance trial shall issue a ruling on life imprisonment for a person eligible for commutation of the death penalty to life imprisonment.

The period during which the person sentenced to death is imprisoned shall be included in the prison sentence’s term.

Article 9. Effect

This Resolution was adopted on September 30, 2025, by the Council of Justices of the Supreme People’s Court, and takes effect on November 1, 2025.-

On behalf of the Council of Justices of the Supreme People’s Court

Chief Justice of the Supreme People’s Court

LE MINH TRI