Thai Cabinet OKs Injection, Not Guns, for Executions

ByABC News
January 30, 2001, 12:42 PM

B A N G K O K, Thailand, Jan. 30 -- The Thai Cabinet today approved aproposal to execute criminals by lethal injection rather than bymachine gun.

The change requires approval by Parliament. A statement issuedafter the Cabinet meeting said its decision was based on studiesconducted by judges, police, prosecutors, health professionals andhuman rights activists.

Thailand has executed more than 300 people by gunfire since thepractice was introduced in 1935. Prisoners are blindfolded andstrapped to a pole and the executioner fires a mounted machine gun.

Human rights activists, led by Amnesty International Thailand,had petitioned the government seeking an end to the death penalty.Amnesty says at least 106 countries have abandoned the deathpenalty.