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China to halt execution by firing squad

After half a century, China is to stop executing people by firing squad.

But as China correspondent Tom O'Byrne reports, the move is only to make way for the introduction of the widely-used method of lethal injection:

"A report on China's official Xinhua news agency says a series of trials across China over several years have left experts with valuable experience about the benefits of introducing lethal injections. China leads the world in the number of executions each year, routinely killing more of its citizens than the rest of the world's capital punishment nations put together. Yet despite international concern, the few polls carried out show strong public support for capital punishment in China, and thousands of spectators often attend public sentencing rallies where condemned prisoners are paraded around a sports ground before being taken away and shot.

8/01/02 13:08:16 | ABC Radio Australia News

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