在我国“保留死刑，严格适用死刑”的死刑政策下，死刑特赦是继立法、司法途径后限制死刑适用的“第三条路径”。死刑特赦是由特赦机关以政令方式颁布的免除死刑犯的死刑立即执行，减为死刑缓期二年执行的法律制度，具有救济性、自愿性和民主性的特征，其权力来源于人民，性质为国家权力，应成为我国现有特赦制度的一个子类型。死刑特赦制度有其法律和法理基础，现阶段构建我国死刑特赦制度是必要的，有助于限制死刑的实际执行、弥补法律之不足，并促进我国国际刑事司法合作的顺利开展。现阶段构建我国死刑特赦制度也是可行的，其以我国现有特赦法律制度为法律基础，以新中国成立以来的九次特赦为实践基础，以我国经济发展取得的成就为经济基础，以当前民众对死刑的观念转变为社会基础，同时有丰富的域外死刑赦免制度经验可供借鉴。
应构建具有中国特色的死刑特赦制度，由全国人大常委会行使死刑特赦权，可下设特赦事务委员会处理具体事宜。死刑特赦的对象应仅限于已获生效且可执行判决的死刑犯，并从积极和消极条件两个方面构建死刑特赦的实体要件，死刑特赦对于罪犯的效力是免除死刑立即执行但一律改判为死刑缓期二年执行。在死刑特赦的立法方面，要先完善我国《刑法》《刑事诉讼法》中关于特赦的内容，在时机成熟时制定一部体系完备的《特赦法》，形成具有中国特色的现代特赦制度。在死刑特赦的程序方面，应构建死刑犯本人、近亲属及委托的律师采用“由下至上”申请特赦的方式作为特赦的启动程序，辅之以申请特赦的权利告知程序。死刑特赦的申请时间应为告知申请特赦权利后的10日内，申请方式是直接向特赦事务委员会提出申请，受理后人民法院立即暂缓死刑的执行。死刑特赦的审查和决定程序包括初步审查、调研和组织听证、特赦事务委员会提出初步建议，以及全国人大常委会讨论并作出是否特赦的决定。死刑特赦由特赦事务委员会负责执行，人民法院协助执行，获得特赦的罪犯应由最高人民法院改判为死刑缓期二年执行。此外还应当构建死刑特赦的监督机制，提倡应由检察机关和纪检监察机关对死刑特赦的参与机关及其公职人员进行监督，监督的范围、程序及效力依照现有的党内法规和监察法规处理即可，死刑特赦机关也应当完善回避制度等内部监督机制。

Under the death penalty policy of our country “retain the death penalty for the time being and apply it cautiously”, the death penalty amnesty is the “third path” which limits the application of the death penalty after the legislative and judicial ways. It is a legal system issued by the amnesty organization in the way of a government decree to exempt the death penalty for immediate execution, commuted to death penalty with a two-year reprieve. It has the characteristics of relief, voluntary and democratic, its power comes from the people, it belongs to the state power, and it should become a sub-type of our existing amnesty system. The amnesty system of death penalty has its foundations of law and juridical logic. It is necessary to construct the amnesty system on death penalty at the present stage. It will help limit the actual execution of death penalty, make up for the deficiency of law and promote the development of our international criminal judicial cooperation. At the present stage, it is also feasible to construct the amnesty system of death penalty in our country. The system is based on the existing legal system of amnesty, the nine amnesty decisions since the establishment of the People's Republic of China, the economic achievements of China, the current public concept of death penalty, and it also has plenty of foreign experience. 
So we should establish a kind of amnesty system of death penalty which full of Chinese characteristics. The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress should exercise the power to grant death penalty amnesty, and an amnesty affairs committee should be set up to handle specific matters. The people who can get the amnesty of death penalty should be limited to those who have already get an effective and enforceable death penalty judgment. And the entity elements of the amnesty of death penalty should be constructed from two aspects of positive and negative. The effect of the amnesty of death penalty for criminals is to exempt them from immediate execution of death penalty, but all sentences should be changed into death penalty with a two-year reprieve. In terms of the legislation of the amnesty on death penalty, we should firstly improve the contents of the amnesty in Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure Law. When the fullness of time was come, we should formulate a complete system of amnesty Law and form a modern amnesty system with Chinese characteristics. In terms of the procedure of amnesty on death penalty, it is necessary to establish the launch procedure of amnesty that applying by the prisoners themselves, their close relatives and the lawyers, supplemented by the procedure of informing the right to apply for amnesty. The application for the amnesty should be made within 10 days after the notification of the right to apply for the amnesty. The application should be made directly to the Amnesty Affairs Committee, and the court should immediately suspend the execution of the death penalty. The review and decision procedures include preliminary examination, investigation and hearing, put forward preliminary recommendation by the committee, then discussion and decision by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress on whether to grant amnesty or not. The amnesty on the death penalty shall be carried out by the Amnesty Affairs Committee, with the assistance of the people's court. The sentence of a amnestied criminal shall be commuted to a death sentence with a two-year reprieve by the Supreme People's Court. In addition, the supervision system of death penalty amnesty should be established, advocating that procuratorial organs and discipline inspection organs should supervise the organs participating in the death penalty amnesty and their public officials. And the scope, procedure and effectiveness of the supervision should be handled according to the existing internal party regulations and supervision regulations. Death penalty amnesty organ should also improve the internal supervision system such as the avoidance system.