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Remedying the financial and social consequences of a crime is poised to become a key factor in determining criminal liability in Việt Nam.

Latest Developments: On April 17, 2026, the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) released a draft policy dossier for the revised Penal Code, opening it for public feedback until May 7. On page 14, the ministry proposes adding new grounds for sentencing decisions that would drastically reduce penalties for cooperative offenders in certain cases.

The Details: Under the proposed draft, leniency could be applied to offenders who make full and honest confessions during the investigation stage, demonstrate genuine remorse, and fully compensate for all damages caused.

If these criteria are met, the reductions are quite significant:

For crimes where the maximum penalty is the death penalty or life imprisonment, the sentence could be capped at no more than 20 years in prison.

For offenses carrying fixed-term imprisonment, the penalty would not exceed three-quarters of the statutory maximum.

Alternatively, a fine could be imposed as the principal penalty, or criminal liability could be waived entirely.

Furthermore, the draft proposes deferring criminal prosecution specifically to give offenders the time needed to gather funds and remedy consequences.

Because these proposals still exist as policy orientations rather than a full legislative draft, the specific procedures and exact criteria for applying these reductions remain undefined.

Why It Matters: Current criminal law contains absolutely no mechanism allowing for such substantial sentence reductions at an early stage based solely on confession and financial remediation. Under the existing framework, a direct reduction from the death penalty to a fixed-term prison sentence is forbidden. Instead, a death sentence must first be commuted to life imprisonment through a formal, highly stringent clemency process.

According to Clause 4, Article 40 of the current Penal Code, this is reserved for presidential clemency or specific vulnerable groups: pregnant women, those raising children under 36 months, individuals 75 or older, or those suffering from terminal cancer. Furthermore, earning clemency for a life sentence currently requires a minimum of 15 years served.

While Clause 1, Article 54 of the current Penal Code does allow courts to impose a sentence below the lowest level of an applicable bracket if an offender shows remorse and remedies consequences, it only drops the punishment to the next lighter bracket—it does not commute a death sentence directly to 20 years.

The Timeline: On Oct. 20, 2025, former Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính signed Decision No. 2321 to approve the development of the revised Penal Code. This established a new government directive to “encourage the application of restorative and community reintegration measures.”

A full draft is expected to be released for public consultation in July 2026. The 16th National Assembly will then review it during its third session. It is anticipated to get passed in 2027.

Lê Sáng wrote this article in Vietnamese and published it in Luật Khoa Magazine on April 21, 2026. The Vietnamese Magazine has the copyrights of the English translation.

Việt Nam Considers Commuting Death Sentences to 20 Years in Draft Penal Code Revision

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