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Lethal Injection Replaces Death by Shooting in Thailand
BANGKOK, Thailand (AP):
Buddhist monks sprinkled holy water on machine guns at a prison outside Bangkok on Sunday, as lethal injection officially replaced death by shooting as Thailand's method of capital punishment.
At a religious ceremony at the Bangkwang maximum security prison just north of the Thai capital, 319 balloons were also released, representing the spirits of all the convicts executed by machine gun over the past 71 years. A single executioner used to carry out the shootings. "We released the balloons ... in the belief that their spirits will go to heaven,'' prison commander Pitaya Sangawatin told The Associated Press. Thailand this year decided to switch to lethal injection, claiming it is more humane. But critics say lethal injections do not necessarily deliver the swift and painless death claimed by its proponents. After the switch, which became effective Sunday, the machine guns used at the prison will be consigned to a museum. Death sentences used to be rarely carried out in Thailand, as legal authorities were influenced by the Buddhist precept that no living thing should be killed. But executions resumed in 1995 after an eight-year moratorium, and the pace has picked up in recent years as convictions for trafficking methamphetamine -- considered a social plague -- have skyrocketed. A total of 68 men and women on death row in Thailand have exhausted all legal appeals and may face execution at any time. About 900 others nationwide are appealing their death sentences. The death sentence is mandatory in Thailand for premeditated murder, killing of an official on government business, regicide, and the production and importation of heroin. It is discretionary for a number of offenses including robbery, rape, kidnapping, arson and bombing, insurrection, treason and espionage, possession of more than 100 grams (3.53 ounces) of heroin or amphetamines, and aircraft hijacking.
Mon Feb 23, 2004 1:11 pm
Mon Feb 23, 2004 1:19 pm
Originally posted by Sir Loin
those pics remind me of the movie "Alive"
Mon Feb 23, 2004 1:24 pm
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