To mark International Anti-Drugs Day, China executes dozens of drug traffickers

China has sentenced dozens of drug dealers to death to mark International Anti-Drugs Day, says state media.

Some 16 people received death sentences in a trial in the city of Chongqing on Saturday and a man was executed in Shanghai, said Xinhua news agency.

Xinhua's website, Xinhuanet, said on Friday executions had also been carried out in several other provinces.

news.bbc.co.uk...

Amnesthy International is all over this and protesting the executions. Their argument: There is no proof that executions deter the trafficking of drugs.

WAY TO GO CHINA!!!!! Now if The U.S. would adopt such polices we would be set. Sometimes the only way to stop these punks is to get violent. China Leads the Way. I Hope The U.S. follows.


Just My Opinion .

The US is trying to pass a law in Patriot Act 2 so that the death penalty can be an option for a lot more felony crimes. Not sure whether drug trafficking will be included. I still think its messed up wasting life like that anywhere in the world.

Personally i think that any sex crime involving children, major drug offenses, and ofcoarse Murder, should be excacuted. give them there trial if found guilty its the needle. we are way to lax in our polices involving crime and i think much more action needs to be taken.

I tend to agree with Tealc, but for different reasons.

The death penalty has been proven not to be a deterrent to crime. In fact, it often times escalates the severity of the crimes commited.

As an example, let's assume you do not use drugs. If the anti-drug laws of your country were eliminated today, would that encourage you to go out and score some dope? Not likely. Your use of drugs is determined by factors other than the status of the anti-drug laws. Similarly with other behaviors we discourage and label as crimes.

Then, if the death penalty does not deter others from commiting crime, what is its logical purpose?

Its purpose is to eliminate from the gene pool those cannot live within the established social norms. Anyway you look at it, it is not a pretty refelction of us.

The system here in Texas is a joke. We are right up there just behind China in the number of executions each year , far more than any other state. Harris County where Houston is located sent far more people to death row than any other County in the state.

Recently the Houston Police Department DNA test lab imploded from the inside out so to speak due to lack of proper testing because the staff didn't know what they were doing. This has caused huundreds of cases to be retested with some of those cases being people on death row. A lot of the retested evidence has shown the people imprisoned for these crimes did not do them or may not have did them. One prisoner on death row has already been released because after retesting it was found that he could not have possibly done the crime. Some DNA evidence was distroyed so I'm certain there are people in prison here that although are innocent, will never see the light of day.

The state gives you what they call a public defender if you cant afford a real lawyer. Capital cases like death row inmates get two. They are payed about 200 dollars each in a non capital case an I believe not much more than that about 700 in capital cases. I forget the exact numbers but they aren't much. These public defenders are sometimes straight out of law school, the bottom of the ladder so to speak. Some public defenders are given capital cases when they have never even tried a traffic ticket much less a death row offense.

With things the way they are in this states justice system I think the poor dont stand a chance. I think there should be a moritorium on death row so each case can be reviewed properly. No these prisoners dont get all the appeals they should get BTW. Thanks to Clinton a prisoner only has one year to file a federal Habaus Corpus unless new evidence is found. The above example of the messed up test results at the crime lab would not be considered new evidence so a Habaus Corpus could not be filed based soley on that. Also the pay and the quality of repesentation of these public defenders needs to be increased.

Based on all this I think the death penalty should not be expanded because too many problems exist in the current system. In a perfect world it would be different.

I thought you already got the death sentence in America for any cannabis offences.

China has lost the plot. Although I agree on the death sentence for certain types of crime mainly anything to do with hurting children, serial killers certain kinds of murder, but drugs no.

Extremely good point TCN.

Those in favor of the death penalty (I count myself among them), often fail to realize their inherent faith in the infallibility of the U.S. justice system. The (erroneous) assumption that the process, which places upon a member of our society the penalty of death by state sponsored execution, is reliable.

Indeed it is not. We could put the same exact case through the same exact machinations and arrive at two different and distinct results. Hence the U.S. (also imperfect) appeals process.

The question then comes down to: In our death penalty system, how large (or small) of a margin of error are we comfortable with?

The Chinese seem to have arrived at figure.

They are executing drug traffickers not people who use them. Traffickers are the ones delivering the drugs to the country so they can be put on the streets, thats who they are executing. They aren't executing the users.

To be a drug trafficker in China - either you are incredibly stupid or desperate? Which is it? Think about it, you are living under a very harsh penal system, no chance of appeal, yet you choose to distribute drugs. Says something about the impact drugs that these people participate in this activity knowing fully well the punishment if their caught.