From shooting to lethal injections

China is to expand the use of lethal injections to replace execution by shooting, a senior official has said.
Jiang Xingchang, vice-president of the Supreme People's Court (SPC), said that the move was because lethal injections were considered more humane.

Critics say China executes more people than any country in the world.

But Beijing is gradually reforming its use of the death penalty. Last year the Supreme Court ordered judges to be more sparing in its imposition.

Half of China's 404 Intermediate People's Courts - which carry out most of the country's executions - now use lethal injections, Jiang Xingchang told the China Daily.

Mr Jiang said that the method would eventually be used in all Intermediate People's Courts, but he gave no timescale for the shift.

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