ZheJiang executes death penalty under injector
By Kyle Guo (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2006-06-01 16:07 As of September 1, death row inmates across the
province will no longer face death by firing squad instead they will be executed
by lethal injection, the Zhejiang Provincial Supreme Court in Eastern Zhejiang
province announced on June 1.
China issues the death penalty for a wide range of crimes from murder to
economic corruption. These practices have met with strong criticism from other
countries that view China's use of the death penalty as in defiance of basic
human rights.
"Execution by lethal injection demonstrates tremendous progress in China's
criminal judgment proceedings and due to our solid efforts, Zhejing Province is
capable of carrying out a death penalty of this kind," Supreme Court director
Ying Yong says.
"They will be able to better deal with the relationship between law
enforcement and effective control of capital punishment," Ying says. "We won't
be merciful with those who deserve the death penalty, but to those who haven't
committed a grave crime, we won't carry out such a penalty."
China is taking aggressive measures to change its international image.
China has set up three new criminal tribunals under the Supreme People's
Court to review provincial death sentence cases, which began operations on April
1 this year, according to a Xinhua report.
China also signed a repatriation deal with Spain on April 29 this year, which
ensured that China would not punish corrupt officials who flee to Spain and are
repatriated to China with the death penalty.
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