AMNESTY CONDEMNS CHINA OVER LETHAL INJECTION

Amnesty International condemned China's decision to expand lethal injections to replace execution by gunshot in the year of the Beijing Olympics, saying the real focus should be on abolishing the death penalty. China executes more convicts than the rest of the world combined, estimated between 5,000 and 12,000 people a year. "The extension of the lethal injection programme flies in the face of the clear international trend away from using the death penalty and ignores the problems inherent in this punishment," said human rights watchdog Amnesty's Asia-Pacific director, Catherine Baber. "Arbitrary application, miscarriages of justice, including executing the innocent, and the cruel and inhumane nature of the death penalty cannot be solved by changing the method of execution," she said in a statement.