During this period, there was no document specifically regulating the crime of murder, but the crime of murder was only mentioned in documents regulating a group of crimes that needed to be focused on suppressing to protect the government, communist property, and some special subjects in order to successfully carry out the anti-imperialist and anti-feudal tasks. According to Article 4, Section 2, Decree No. 133-SL dated January 20, 1953, punishing crimes that violate the internal security and foreign security of the State stipulates : “ Those who commit crimes of sweeping, arresting, killing, torturing, terrorizing, bullying cadres and people, oppressing, exploiting, looting people, forcing laborers, conscripting soldiers, and collecting taxes for the enemy, will be punished according to the severity of the crime as follows: The masterminds, organizers, and commanders will be sentenced to death or life imprisonment; … ”; Article 6 of Decree No. 151-SL, dated April 12, 1953, punishing landlords who defy the law stipulates: “ Any landlord who commits one of the following crimes: Colluding with imperialism, puppet government, espionage, establishing or leading reactionary organizations and parties to oppose the Government, sabotage the resistance, harm the people, kill farmers, cadres and employees... will be sentenced to imprisonment from 10 years to life or executed... ”
During this period, acts of violating human life were regulated in many different forms such as: Assassination, murder, intentional murder... As Article 1, Decree No. 27-SL, dated February 28, 1946, punishing the crimes of kidnapping, extortion and assassination, stipulates: " Those who commit the crimes of kidnapping, extortion, assassination will be punished from 2 years to 10 years in prison and may be executed "; Clause 1, Article 6 of Decree No. 151-SL dated April 12, 1953, punishing landlords who oppose the law, stipulates that any landlord who commits one of the following crimes will be punished from 10 years to life in prison or executed: Colluding with imperialism, puppet government, spies to establish or lead reactionary organizations and parties to oppose the Government, sabotage the resistance, harm the people, kill farmers, cadres and employees ; Point 3 of Circular No. 442-TTg dated January 19, 1955 stipulates: Intentional murder is punishable by imprisonment from 5 to 20 years, if there are mild cases, it can be reduced to 1 year, premeditated murder can be punished by death .
The regulations on the crime of murder during this period had a differentiation in the criminal law as well as in the way of handling murder offenders and clearly demonstrated the principle of severely punishing the masterminds, leaders, active activists, causing serious consequences...; leniency towards those who were forced, deceived... Article 4, Section 2, Decree No. 133-SL dated January 20, 1953 on punishment of crimes against the internal security and foreign safety of the State stipulates: " Those who commit the crimes of sweeping, capturing, killing, torturing, terrorizing, bullying cadres and people, oppressing, exploiting, looting people, forcing laborers, conscripting soldiers, collecting taxes for the enemy, will be punished according to the severity of the crime as follows: a) The masterminds, organizers, and commanders will be sentenced to death or life imprisonment; b) Active activists who harm many people will be imprisoned for 10 years or more; c) Those who commit the above crimes whose crimes are relatively minor will be sentenced to imprisonment of 10 years or less ; Article 6 of Decree No. 151-SL dated April 12, 1953 on punishing landlords who oppose the law stipulates: Those who are forced or deceived into committing crimes will, depending on the severity of the crime and their attitude of repentance, be sentenced to imprisonment of 10 years or less .
Regarding the handling method, the offenders who violate human life, focusing on murder, have been expanded with many types and levels of punishment of different severity. As in Point 3, Circular No. 442-TTg dated January 19, 1955 stipulates: Intentional murder is punishable by imprisonment from 5 years to 20 years, if there are mild cases, it can be reduced to 1 year, premeditated murder can be punished by death . As for additional punishments, they are prescribed and applied to those who commit murder to support the main punishment and open up more legal possibilities for the court to choose a punishment appropriate to the nature, level of danger to society of the crime and the personality of the offender. Article 6 of Decree No. 151-SL dated April 12, 1953, punishing landlords who defy the law stipulates: Any landlord who commits one of the following crimes: Colluding with imperialism, puppet government, espionage, establishing or leading organizations, groups
reactionary parties that oppose the Government, sabotage the resistance, harm the people, kill farmers, cadres and employees;... will be sentenced to imprisonment from 10 years to life or death penalty, must compensate farmers for damages, and have part or all of their property confiscated .
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* Period 1954-1975:
After the victory of Dien Bien Phu, the Geneva Agreement was signed, the North was completely liberated, the South was dominated by the US imperialists and their lackeys. The North carried out the socialist revolution, determined to develop to become a solid rear for the revolution of the whole country, especially supporting the South to carry out the national and democratic revolution to overthrow the US imperialists and their lackeys, achieving the goal of regaining independence, freedom, and national unification.
Research on PLHS in our country during this period shows that there have been many advances reflected in some common characteristics as follows:
Regarding crimes, children are treated with leniency and consideration; those under 14 years old are not brought to court; those from 14 to 18 years old, if the crime requires trial, there is leniency; and those from 14 to 16 years old are only tried in serious cases. This progressive provision continues to be recorded in the 1985 Penal Code and the 1999 Penal Code.
Regarding the concept of fault, although not officially recognized in criminal law documents, in the documents of the Court, there is a distinction between the forms of fault: Direct intention, indirect intention, unintentional due to overconfidence and unintentional due to carelessness. Regarding intentional fault, from the practice of trying the crime of murder, the concept of direct intentional fault and indirect intentional fault has been proposed. Accordingly, in the crime of murder, there are two forms of fault: intentional - there is direct intention when the offender clearly sees that his action will have the consequence of killing another person, and because of the desire for that consequence to occur, he commits the act. Indirect intentional fault: Can
The offender does not want the victim to die, but knows that his actions are likely to cause the victim to die, but still does them and does not expect any specific conditions to prevent that consequence from happening. The subjective consciousness of the offender is the consciousness of indifference and does not care whether the victim lives or dies. Regarding unintentional fault, the following acts are mentioned: "Lack of responsibility, violation of labor regulations, causing serious damage to people and property".
The legal definition of the stages of committing a crime has not been officially recorded in the legal documents of this period, but in the documents of the Court sector, the stages have also been mentioned: Conspiracy to commit a crime; Preparation to commit a crime; Attempted crime; Completed crime. Originating from the prevention of counter-revolutionary crimes - a very serious group of crimes that need to be suppressed right from the moment the criminals begin to express counter-revolutionary thoughts, the concept of "conspiracy to commit a crime" - the first stage of committing counter-revolutionary crimes - was formed.
The legal documents of this period regarding the crime of violating human life (murder) mentioned the concept of preparing to commit a crime. According to the Summary No. 452-HS2 dated August 10, 1970 of the Supreme People's Court: To be called premeditated, the preparation of the murder plan by the criminal must be thought out relatively carefully before taking action.
Similar to the stage of preparing to commit a crime, the stage of attempted crime and completed crime are also only mentioned for the crime of murder in the above text: Murder is completed when the victim dies. In the case of murder, but not death, it should be uniformly called attempted murder; in this case, although the murder is not completed, the victim does not die, but the offender believes that he has done everything necessary to kill and thinks the victim is dead.
Along with the development of LHS science, the concept of complicity has begun to appear.
first appeared in legal books and newspapers, and summary reports of the Court sector. Organized crime was first mentioned in Circular No. 442-TTg dated January 19, 1955 of the Prime Minister, but what is "organized" has not been explained.
In general, during this period, there are typical PLHS documents such as:
- Decree No. 267 dated June 15, 1956 on punishment of plots and acts of sabotage against state property, cooperatives and private property of citizens;
- Decree dated October 30, 1967 punishing counter-revolutionary crimes...
To implement the guidelines set forth by our Party during the period from 1955 to 1976, the Government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the Supreme People's Court issued many documents guiding the guidelines for handling the crime of murder, such as: Directive No. 1025-TATC dated June 15, 1960 of the Supreme People's Court on the guidelines for handling the crime of murder due to superstition; Directive No. 01-NCCS dated March 14, 1963 of the Supreme People's Court on handling the crime of infanticide; Thematic summary of the practice of trying the crime of murder issued together with Official Dispatch No. 452-HS2 dated August 10, 1970 of the Supreme People's Court on the practice of trying the crime of murder; Report summarizing the work of the entire sector in 1975 of the Supreme People's Court; Official Dispatches No. 37 and 38-NCPL dated January 16, 1976 of the Supreme People's Court; Decree No. 03-SL dated March 15, 1976 of the Provisional Revolutionary Government Council and Circular No. 03-SL-BTP-TT dated April 15, 1976 of the Ministry of Justice guiding the implementation of Decree No. 03 stipulates crimes and penalties, including murder, with the following content: Committing the crime of intentional murder shall be punished with imprisonment from 15 years to life imprisonment or death penalty. In case of mitigating circumstances, the penalty may be lower .
It can be said that the regulations on crimes against human life in the legal documents of our State in this period have inherited the achievements of criminal legislation (LPHS) of the previous period in differentiating TNHS as well as in the way of handling criminals who violate human life. Specifically:
- Murder with one of the following special aggravating circumstances can be punished with imprisonment from 12 to 20 years, life imprisonment or death penalty: Premeditated murder; murder to conceal or facilitate the commission of another crime; murder accompanied by rape, robbery or another serious crime; murder in an extremely barbaric manner; murder of many people...
- Murder with the following special mitigating circumstances shall be punished with less than 15 years in prison: Murder in a state of strong and sudden mental agitation due to the victim's serious wrongdoing.
- Murder in ordinary cases, without aggravating or mitigating circumstances, is punishable by imprisonment from 5 to 20 years.
Compared to the previous period, the regulations on crimes against human life in this period have had significant developments in the differentiation of criminal liability as well as in the way of handling criminals. Specifically:
- Many aggravating and mitigating circumstances were added during this period. But the most notable point is that for the first time, the LHS distinguished between general aggravating circumstances and special aggravating circumstances and general mitigating circumstances and special mitigating circumstances.
- Special aggravating circumstances stipulated in the crime of murder include: Murder for base motives or of a hooligan nature; murder of a woman known to be pregnant; murder by dangerous means that can cause the death of many people; murder while assigned to work or because the victim was performing a duty; the offender has a very bad personal history.
- Special mitigating circumstances stipulated in the crime of murder include: Murder in a state of being abused and cruelly oppressed by the victim; murder beyond the scope of necessary self-defense; murder of newborn children; murder due to superstition; murder of lepers, insane people, disabled people; murder of children for fear of being infected with disease or to avoid having to raise them in miserable economic circumstances.
- The common aggravating circumstances stipulated in the crime of murder include: Murder with direct intent; organized murder; murder with the abuse of position, expertise, profession, or entrusted weapons; murder causing clearly negative political influence...
- The mitigating circumstances commonly prescribed in the crime of murder include: Murder with the victim's consent; the offender is a minor...
For the first time, the way to handle murderers is clearly regulated in the LHS, such as when the death penalty can and should be applied, when a suspended sentence can be applied, and how to handle cases where there are both special aggravating and special mitigating circumstances. Specifically:
- Apply the death penalty to a person who commits murder in cases where there are many special aggravating circumstances or only one special but very serious aggravating circumstance, the offender's personal background is bad, there are no mitigating circumstances or there are no significant mitigating circumstances.
- Applying suspended sentences to murderers in the following cases: Killing newborns in difficult circumstances; killing lepers, insane people, and disabled people in especially difficult circumstances, with the main motive being to avoid suffering for the victims; some cases of minor accomplices.
- When there are both aggravating and mitigating circumstances, it is necessary to properly assess the nature and level of danger of each aggravating and mitigating circumstance, and to compare and contrast them to see the mutual influence between these circumstances, and on that basis to determine an appropriate sentence. This sentence can be below the minimum level of the severe penalty framework or higher than the maximum level of the mild penalty framework.
* Period from 1975 to before the promulgation of the 1985 Penal Code:
After the complete liberation of the South, the country encountered many difficulties, especially having to deal with two wars in the Southwestern border and the Northern border. Social management in the South was still confusing. Some bad elements took advantage of this situation to carry out very barbaric and brutal criminal activities such as: killing many people, killing and burning bodies to hide evidence, killing accompanied by robbery or rape. To heal the wounds of war and restore social order, the unification of old laws and the development of new laws were urgent tasks. Based on the Resolution dated July 2, 1976 of the 6th National Assembly, the first session, the Government Council collected opinions from all sectors and advocated: Current legal documents in the two regions are applied nationwide because they all originate from the Party's guidelines and policies. For the Southern provinces, the newly promulgated Decrees as well as other legal documents of the Provisional Revolutionary Government continue to be applied. However, if any provision is too general, it is possible and necessary to apply the laws that have been implemented in the North. For any issue that the South did not have before but the North already has, the laws currently implemented in the North will be applied, but the application must be considered to be appropriate to the situation and characteristics of the South. For the North, for any issue that the North does not have or has but is not suitable but the South has and is more advanced, the laws of the South will be applied.
In general, in the face of the country's new revolutionary situation, the LHS has also had many important innovations. However, the main, consistent task since the liberation until now of the LHS is to firmly protect the socialist state, the socialist regime, maintain political security and social order and safety, creating conditions for our State to successfully carry out the cause of innovation and national development.