Does The Method Make Executions More Palatable?
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Posted to Legal on Sat Jan 05, 2008 at 08:27:11 AM EST (promoted by port1080). RSS.
In a recent statement to China Daily, the Vice President of China's Supreme People's Court announced that in order to make the execution more humane and efficient lethal injection will replace gunshots as the preferred method of capital punishment in the world's most populous country.
Jiang Xingchang, Vice President of China's Supreme People's court announced that lethal injection would soon replace gunshot wounds to the back of the head (graphic, disturbing, viewer discretion advised) as the preferred method of capital punishment in his country. The method has been tested for 10 years in certain courts, and is now increasing in popularity in major cities.
Mr. Xingchang noted that replacing gunshots with injections was prohibitive because of cost. Before a recent change, courts had to pay Beijing $41 for the lethal cocktail, and had to have specially constructed execution grounds or borrow a mobile execution chamber. Now the drug will be provided free although courts still have to administer it themselves. He noted that the change is good in the long run because it is more humane for the condemned, psychologically easier to perform for court staff and police, as well as preferred by the vast majority of sentenced prisoners.
China leads the world in executions, with the official number being a secret. However, it is believed that the reported total is just a tiny fraction of the number actually killed. International opposition groups decry the practice, arguing the change does not do much, especially as China is one of the few countries to execute non-violent offenders. Amnesty International decries the amount of executions in China, the fairness of death sentences, as well as their usage in general. In a separate interview, the Chief Justice of the court, Xiao Yang, claimed China is working toward worldwide goals of reducing the number of executions but asserted it cannot be done overnight.
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