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China's Death Vans

By Jeralyn, Section Death Penalty
Posted on Mon Mar 28, 2005 at 03:37:04 PM EST
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In the truth is stranger than fiction department: Several Chinese provinces are using "death vans" to carry out court-ordered executions - in some cases, 15 minutes after a death sentence has been imposed. [Via Crim Prof Blog]

THE death van is an inconspicuous blue-and-white police vehicle that parks near the courtroom when its services are required by the Chinese judicial system.

Inside it is fitted with a couch that can be raised or lowered like an operating table, set in the middle of the floor. There is space on either side for the bailiff, the court medical expert and one or two policemen to hold down the condemned man.

A lethal injection is then administered in a two-stage process by the medical expert, who in some cases may be a qualified doctor, and the bailiff. The process is swift and efficient, according to a policeman who has witnessed the vans in use in Liaoning province, northeast China.

...The vans, which cost £33,000 each, are fitted with closed circuit television, which permitted Li’s death to be watched by local members of the National People’s Congress gathered at the city’s funeral parlour.

The Sunday Times has received a photo of one of the vans, and reports that Amnesty International has received information from a Chinese official that 10,000 people a year are executed in China.

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    China's Death Vans | 27 comments (27 topical)
    Re: China's Death Vans (none / 0) (#1)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Mon Mar 28, 2005 at 03:48:14 PM EST
    Don't give Texas any ideas.

    Re: China's Death Vans (none / 0) (#2)
    by Sailor on Mon Mar 28, 2005 at 04:19:43 PM EST
    texas would need a conveyor belt.

    Re: China's Death Vans (none / 0) (#3)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Mon Mar 28, 2005 at 05:10:27 PM EST
    sounds like a good franchising opportunity...

    Re: China's Death Vans (none / 0) (#4)
    by pigwiggle on Mon Mar 28, 2005 at 06:01:09 PM EST
    Hands up, who thinks they have a shot at a permanent seat on the newly proposed Human Rights Council?

    Re: China's Death Vans (none / 0) (#5)
    by wishful on Mon Mar 28, 2005 at 06:07:54 PM EST
    pw: GWB?

    Re: China's Death Vans (none / 0) (#6)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Mon Mar 28, 2005 at 06:24:38 PM EST
    et al - Hope the court is reading Budda...

    Re: China's Death Vans (none / 0) (#7)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Mon Mar 28, 2005 at 06:40:50 PM EST
    Card-carrying Communists, nah. I'm surprised that they don't still tap 'em with a Tokarev.

    Re: China's Death Vans (none / 0) (#8)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Mon Mar 28, 2005 at 07:26:50 PM EST
    If it were up to Bushbag they would convert the subway cars in blue states.

    Re: China's Death Vans (none / 0) (#9)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Mon Mar 28, 2005 at 07:52:07 PM EST
    This is rather old news. I seem to recall a section on one of the TV newsprograms (20/20, Fronline? don't really remember) at least a year ago, including pictures of the vans used. If I recall correctly, this was being done at least partly in response to the negative vibes associated with the kneeling prisoner being dispached by a bullet to the back of the head in the middle of a filled stadium.

    Re: China's Death Vans (none / 0) (#10)
    by john horse on Mon Mar 28, 2005 at 07:53:20 PM EST
    This gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "Chinese takeout." The only difference between this and Texas is their method of delivery.

    Re: China's Death Vans (none / 0) (#11)
    by Che's Lounge on Mon Mar 28, 2005 at 08:11:27 PM EST
    Leave it to the Chinese to find the most pragmatic, efficient way to do anything. Do they still harvest the organs afterwards? I remember 60 minutes busting two chinese "doctors" (in the 90's?) who were offering transplantable, matched kidneys from executed prisoners.

    Re: China's Death Vans (none / 0) (#12)
    by Johnny on Mon Mar 28, 2005 at 09:07:11 PM EST
    Better bomb them into democracy. Seriously. If we don't, they represent a far greater threat than Iraq or the USSR ever did. I mean, we sell them things, and buy many things from them. They are an emerging economic and military powerhouse. We need to invade them pre-emptively, occupy them, convert them, and introduce a foreign governmental ideal. It will be easy. And it would get Cheney re-elected on the "safe for democracy" platform.

    Re: China's Death Vans (none / 0) (#13)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Mon Mar 28, 2005 at 11:40:32 PM EST
    Death Vans not unusual for that part of the world. but what is unusual is bush and business making big dollars with the Red chinese, it appears that bush may someday want to use the death vans of china in order to free many people here of the cares of life. this is something that the Red Chinese pick-up from the naiz Holocaust and plan on using it all over the world and i mean here, the fact is our government has been helping the Reds do this kind of evil for many years now. but go out and buy some-more Red Chinese "paraphernalia" and when you buy think of how much love the Reds have for you when someday you get put inside a death van for freedom...China mexico Bush the guy for you. stop the mass murder of a nation and the world, remove bush before he removes you.

    Re: China's Death Vans (none / 0) (#14)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Mon Mar 28, 2005 at 11:45:49 PM EST
    Johnny you are right and wrong bush plans to Free us here and in 10 years free china, its going to be fun.

    Re: China's Death Vans (none / 0) (#15)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Mar 29, 2005 at 04:04:32 AM EST
    I love how people act like the 1 billion people in China all got up in the morning and decided, as an act central to their culture, to have 'death vans.' This is the idiotic behavior of Chinese wingers. Were the most rabid of the Amerikkkan wingers to have no check on their insanity, those vans would be picking up people wearing eyeglasses just like Pol Pot. They are as little representative of American as the idiots with this van are the epitome of the Chinese. Wherever they are in the world today, all human beings are citizens of Free Beijing.

    Re: China's Death Vans (none / 0) (#16)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Mar 29, 2005 at 07:34:56 AM EST
    Fred Dawes..... our government has been helping the Reds do this kind of evil for many years Wow Fred. That’s a bold statement! Got any info to back that up? And how is carrying out a sentence in under 20 years (like we don't do) classified as evil?? And,...as long as I'm asking questions... why do you hate the U.S. so much? I've never seen you say ANYTHING positive about this country, the government or the citizens. What's up with that? BTW... I bet the Chinese don't have prisons full of condemned people tying up the courts & wasting millions of tax dollars on appeals.

    Re: China's Death Vans (none / 0) (#17)
    by kdog on Tue Mar 29, 2005 at 09:48:26 AM EST
    BB...you sound jealous of China style justice. What's up with that? We need guys like Fred to make us think. And I've never read anything derogatory about US citizens in his posts. He fears for us, as do I. One thing China's policy will do is increase the number of innocent men executed. 15 minutes isn't much time to find out if errors were made. I can deal with people killing people, but when bueracracies can kill people, I get very very scared.

    Re: China's Death Vans (none / 0) (#19)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Mar 29, 2005 at 01:26:14 PM EST
    Fred Dawes is my canary in the mine shaft. When they come for Fred, I know I'm not much farther down on the list. Fred is like the blind preacher on the corner who no one notices. Seems crazy on the surface but if you stop and listen for a minute you hear him speaking truth to power. Fred says things in TL that, frankly, I'd be scared sh**less to say in America today. I think you should get a medal for bravery, Fred. What the Chinese are doing is no different than our policies here. It just looks worse because they don't have to worry about being politically correct, due process, etc. They are actually more humane in the sense that making someone wait on death row for twenty years is more "cruel and unusual". Oh yeah. We have some kind of absurd claim that only bad guys get the death penalty in the US because our justice system is so great. Where as, the bad people in China are really all innocent folks who "want to be free". Don't like the death vans there? Don't support the death penalty here. They are two stops on the same continuum.

    Re: China's Death Vans (none / 0) (#20)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Mar 29, 2005 at 03:54:39 PM EST
    and some have questioned why it is right to trade and maintain normal relations with China, think about this story next time you go to Wal Mart, culture of life though right?

    Re: China's Death Vans (none / 0) (#21)
    by Che's Lounge on Tue Mar 29, 2005 at 04:28:04 PM EST
    Nobody mess with Fred. He's our own idiot savant but we know he's no idiot.

    Re: China's Death Vans (none / 0) (#22)
    by Johnny on Tue Mar 29, 2005 at 05:27:23 PM EST
    GregZ, why we trade with China is because they have the bomb. Why we do not trade with other, much less dangerous nations is because they don't have the bomb (N.Korea, Cuba). Nixon and Clinton both did more to create the economic and military ampire that China is becoming. And we turn a blind eye to the sh!t going on there, and instead concentrate on the militarily easy opponents. Wal-mart relies heavily on Chinese goods for financial reasons, and as long as we export jobs and capital overseas, we consumers will end up relying heavily on Chinese products.

    Re: China's Death Vans (none / 0) (#23)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Mar 29, 2005 at 09:58:46 PM EST
    "Posted by Johnny: "GregZ, why we trade with China is because they have the bomb." Wow, is that ignorant. We trade with China because they sell very cheap consumer products, and they buy a LOT of US agriculture. "Why we do not trade with other, much less dangerous nations is because they don't have the bomb (N.Korea, Cuba)." N. Korea doesn't have the bomb? What makes you think that? Comparing China and Cuba is HILARIOUS. That's like comparing Nome Alaska with NY city. "Nixon and Clinton both did more to create the economic and military ampire that China is becoming." Again, hilarious. The economic power of China mainly results from rapid response to consumer demand elsewhere, and cheap labor. "And we turn a blind eye to the sh!t going on there, and instead concentrate on the militarily easy opponents." Again, wrong. The focus is on OIL. NK, Cuba, and China have very little. Libya, Iraq, Iran, Sudan, the 'stans,' Venezuela, Nigeria -- tons. "Wal-mart relies heavily on Chinese goods for financial reasons, and as long as we export jobs and capital overseas, we consumers will end up relying heavily on Chinese products." End up? They already do. Not only that, the Chinese hold vaults full of our treasury bonds and other US credit. Luckily, they need the agricultural products more than they need to crash our economy.

    Re: China's Death Vans (none / 0) (#24)
    by Johnny on Tue Mar 29, 2005 at 10:29:30 PM EST
    good one GregZ... N. korea is a potentialy HUGE market for agricultural as well as industrial goods... we do not trade with them because we are not ready to admit they have the bomb, right now we can still rattle our saber at them and cock and crow around about democracy, which we do not do to the chinese. You are wrong. I did not compare Cuba to China, I was remarking on how easy it is for us to sanction a militarily insignificant country. You are wrong. You say that rapidly rising consumer demand drove the rise of china's economy. while you are absolutely correct, they had no Americans to sell to until... link You are misinformed. You say we do not turn a blind eye to the sh!t going on there. We do. All the huffing and puffing we do about Saddam Hussein and Usama Bin Laden shows me that we care less about human rights violations in a country we have no hope of winning a war against than we do about the mighty empire of Iraq. You are right about the oil. china has no desire to crush us economically, merely to turn the tables and drive the marlet in their favor. Like, say, importing wheat from farmers making 2 dollars a day.

    Re: China's Death Vans (none / 0) (#25)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Mar 30, 2005 at 12:33:04 PM EST
    Kdog... BB...you sound jealous of China style justice. What's up with that? Ha ...not jealous, just admire their efficiency. Of course 15 minutes is a little too quick... but then again 15 years is a little too long. I'm sure there is a happy medium there somewhere. but when bueracracies can kill people, I get very very scared. I agree... but we have to realize we ARE the government! If we don't like our particular state's policies (IE -the death penalty) we need to change them. Vote out the people for it & vote in people that are against it. I think with all the blabbing & blaming going on here, many people lose sight of that. Majority rules... period!

    Re: China's Death Vans (none / 0) (#26)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Mar 30, 2005 at 12:41:07 PM EST
    DA... But what part do you like best, the immediate execution, or making the family of the executed pay for the bullet? I like the part that once you are tried & convicted the sentence is carried out and not squabbled about for another 15 or 20 years. As far as making the family of the accused pay for the cost of the execution,...well that's another story. However, I see nothing wrong with making the criminal be responsible to repay the injured party for his crime. If you break into my house and take my stereo... you should do time as well as buy me a new one. I think that's fair. In fact, maybe your time should be commensurate with how long it would take you to earn the money to pay me back? 'Common sense' party

    Re: China's Death Vans (none / 0) (#27)
    by kdog on Wed Mar 30, 2005 at 01:42:44 PM EST
    Majority rules... period
    As long of the rights of the minority are protected.

    Re: China's Death Vans (none / 0) (#28)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sun Apr 17, 2005 at 07:41:30 AM EST
    I can see social security number only for death. it's right

    China's Death Vans | 27 comments (27 topical)