By Chen Yang

Death penalties in Beijing will be carried out by lethal injection from this year, the Beijing Youth Daily reported yesterday.

An “execution room” adapted for the administration of lethal injections near a detention house that houses death row inmates in eastern Beijing, will be put into use this year, the newspaper learned yesterday from a symposium on criminal trials.

The Supreme People’s Court (SPC) will allocate the toxin to three intermediate people’s courts in Beijing under strict supervision and professionals in the courts will be trained to carry out the executions, the report said.

The price of the toxin is about 300 yuan ($45) per dose, and is provided free by the SPC, the Western China City Daily reported.

Beijing authorities agreed to use lethal injections in response to the SPC’s appeal to do so made in 2001.

Death by gunshot has been the only method of capital punishment used in China since 1979. An amendment to the Criminal Procedure Law in 1996 made executions by lethal injection an option.

In 1997, Kunming became the first city to try the method, followed by Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Chongqing and other cities, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
Chengdu has used only lethal injections since March of last year.

Liu Renwen, a criminal expert at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times that Beijing lags behind other cities in implementing executions by lethal injection.

“As there is a global trend to abolish capital punishment or strictly limit its use, the lethal injection is considered more humane,” he said.

“But there is a gap between different cities and counties on the use of lethal injections. Criminals should be treated equally when facing death and lethal injection should not become a privilege for former officials or the rich.”

In 2000, Cheng Kejie, former vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, was executed by lethal injection in Beijing, and in 2007, Zheng Xiaoyu, former director of the State Food and Drug Administration, received the same fate.

As the use of lethal injections is new in China, its effect on people should be supervised and improved to ensure prisoners are not put through agony, Liu said.