'China to use lethal injections more for executions'

BEIJING: China would expand the use of lethal injection to replace gunshots to carry out the death sentences, a senior judicial has said.
 
"It (lethal injection) is considered more humane and will eventually be used in all intermediate courts," the official was quoted as saying by the state-run China Daily.
 
Half of China's 404 Intermediate People's Courts which carry most of the executions use lethal injections, Jiang Xingchang, Vice-President of the Supreme People's Court (SPC), said.
 
He said toxin used in the injection would be allotted to local courts under strict supervision.
 
An amendment to China's Criminal Procedure Law in 1997 made executions by lethal injection an option.
 
According to the official, the use of lethal injection had received favourable response from all quarters of society, including those sentenced to death and their families.
 
The daily also quoted Chief Justice Xiao Yang as saying that capital punishment should be applied only to 'an extremely small number' of serious offenders.
 
"Each death sentence has to stand the test of time."
 
He, however said, "we cannot talk about abolishing or controlling the use of death sentences in the abstract without considering ground realities and social security conditions".
 
Xiao said it was unrealistic for China to abolish the capital punishment in the short-term because of the strong belief among the people in the concept of 'an eye for an eye and a life for a life'.