Friday, March 14, 2003
CHINA WATCH
Beijing rolls out death on wheels
Mobile execution vans that dispense lethal injection deemed 'more humane'
Posted: March 14, 2003
12:00 p.m. Eastern
Hailed by Chinese media as a significant advancement in China's judicial
system, Beijing recently rolled out 18 mobile execution vans.
The government took them for a test drive last Thursday, executing two
farmers from Yunnan province who were convicted of heroin trafficking,
according to
Beijing Today.
The newspaper reported the men "benefited" from a "more humane method of
dispatch" and that Liu Huafu, 21, and Zhou Chaojie, 25, died peacefully
within one
minute of receiving lethal injections in one of the new vans.
Earlier that day, Yunnan's legal authorities approved the use of 18
specially converted vans to be distributed among the province's 17
intermediate courts. In
photographs, the vehicles look like ordinary police vans except they are
marked with the word "court."
Yunnan Provincial High Court president was quoted as praising the
death-on-wheels system.
"The use of lethal injection shows that China's death-penalty system is
becoming more civilized and humane," Zhao Shijie said.
But efficiency and cost were foremost on the minds of Yunnan officials,
according to the paper.
"With lethal injection, only four people are required to execute the death
penalty: one executioner, one member of the court, one from the
procuratorate and one
forensic doctor. A dozen guards are also required to keep watch around the
van," the paper said. "In contrast, many more guards are needed for firing
squads, both
around the site and along the route from the prison. If the case is
well-known and complicated, security needs to be further enhanced and extra
expenses are
incurred."
Professor Wang Shizhou of Beijing University said it was a "very sad
development.
"It will encourage more executions," he predicted.
In his annual report to the National People's Congress, the president of
China's Supreme Court reported 819,000 Chinese have been either condemned to
death or jailed for more than five years since 1998. This represents a 25
percent increase from the previous five years.
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