The Latest: The Ministry of Public Security is proposing a major amendment to the law that would allow a death penalty to be converted into life imprisonment once the 20-year statute of limitations for enforcing the sentence expires. However, this proposal is facing direct pushback from the Office of the President, which commented that the suggestion is inappropriate.
The Details: The Ministry of Public Security stated that current laws fail to clarify what happens when the 20-year enforcement period for a death sentence runs out, which has caused difficulties in some real-world cases.
To resolve this, the police proposed the automatic conversion to life imprisonment.
The Office of the President countered the proposal by arguing that the statute of limitations is strictly a legal basis for ending the state’s authority to enforce a sentence, rather than a mechanism for converting one punishment into another.
In response, the Ministry of Public Security insisted that the proposal is necessary despite differing from the ordinary legal nature of the statute of limitations. Because the death penalty is the harshest punishment, the ministry argues it should be handled under a “special” mechanism.
The ministry argues that allowing an offender to serve no punishment after the expiration period would be disproportionate to the “especially serious” nature of the crime.
Under the Penal Code, the statute of limitations for enforcing a criminal judgment is the prescribed period during which a legally effective judgment must be carried out. Once this expires, the state generally can no longer require the convicted person to serve the sentence, barring certain special cases.
The Background: The death penalty remains highly controversial in Việt Nam, particularly concerning cases that involve possible wrongful convictions.
Two cases with signs of wrongful conviction were decided nearly two decades ago but have not yet been carried out: the case of Hồ Duy Hải, which has been ongoing for 18 years, and the case of Nguyễn Văn Chưởng, which has been ongoing for 19 years.
Additionally, this proposal arrives less than a year after the June 2025 amendments, with the Ministry of Public Security once again replacing the Ministry of Justice as the lead agency drafting the amended Penal Code.
Unlike previous adjustments that were limited to certain provisions, this round of revision is comprehensive in its approach to criminal law policy.
Why It Matters: In addition to the 20-year commutation rule, the Ministry of Public Security has made several other notable proposals, including continuing to reduce the number of offenses punishable by death and commuting death sentences to prison terms for offenders who show remorse and fully remedy the consequences.
The draft amended Penal Code is expected to be released for public comment in July 2026. It is then expected to be submitted to the National Assembly for passage in 2027.
Huỳnh Lam wrote this article in Vietnamese and published it in Luật Khoa Magazine on May 14, 2026. The Vietnamese Magazine has the copyrights of the English translation.
