There is quite a thread going on over here, with Tian starting things off with a memorable comment:
When I was about 6 years old, I have witnessed live execution of about 10 male prisoners in the city of Yancheng in Northern Jiangsu provience.
One of the soldier who carried out the order must have been a new recruit, because he was not able to make the proper shot with his hands shaking so badly. After about two or three shots, the prisoner is wounded in the right collar bone and upper right chest, but he is still standing. An officer came over and kicked him behind the knee and shot him point blank behind the skull.
I will never forget the smell of gun powder mixed with fresh human blood in a winter morning.
Lots of good comments follow, and the original post brought back several evocative memories.
1
By Zhong Wen
I grew up on a small collective farm so was spared the fortune to witness a public execution. Now the most outrageous thing about the public execution is not that it is treated as a spectacle, but the government actually charges the victim’s family money to pay for the bullets.
July 28, 2005 @ 5:12 pm | Comment
2
By Bing
There is a history of public execution in all countries.
If China hasn’t got rid of that, it only testifies the verdict that China is not civilised, which I personally agree.
BTW, what if the family refuses to pay for the bullets?
July 30, 2005 @ 11:00 am | Comment
3
By richard
Then they get shot too. Life is cheap over there.
July 30, 2005 @ 11:02 am | Comment
4
By Bing
What about their organs? Does the government pay for them to be taken?
July 30, 2005 @ 11:18 am | Comment
5
By richard
You’ll have to talk to the surviving family members. I don’t know.
July 30, 2005 @ 11:24 am | Comment